Dr Silas started working at Middlesex in 2016. Before joining the department he held a senior lecturiship at the University of Roehampton where he had previously completed his PhD in 2011. Dr Silas also spent a year as a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Pennsylvania Smell and Taste Center.
BSc, PhD, PGcertHE
Dr Silas' current research interests, broadly speaking, are related to social cognition and cognitive neuroscience. More specifically, he has an interest in the role of mirroring systems in the human brain and the role of embodied processes in understanding others. Dr Silas has experience in using a variety of neuro-scientific methods including; EEG, TMS, tDCS and fMRI and has an interest in these methods in and among themselves. He also has a specific interest in the biological and cognitive mechanisms involved in olfactory processing.
Selected publications:
Silas, J., & Brandt, K. R. (2016). Frontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) abolishes list-method directed forgetting. Neuroscience Letters, 616, 166–169. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neulet.2016.01.035
Doty, R. L., Nsoesie, M. T., Chung, I., Osman, A., Pawasarat, I., Caulfield, J., Hurtig, H., Silas, J., Dubroff, J. Duda, J., Ying, G-S., Tekeli, H. & Leon-Sarmiento, F. E. (2015). Taste function in early stage treated and untreated Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, 262(3), 547–57. http://doi.org/10.1007/s00415-014-7589-z
Doty, R. L., Koti, A., O’Hara, T. a, Landy, J., Shin, C., & Silas, J. (2014). Correlates of implicit cognitive line length representation in two-dimensional space. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 119(2), 550–63. http://doi.org/10.2466/24.PMS.119c23z1
Osman, A., & Silas, J. (2014). Electrophysiological Measurement of Olfactory Function. In R. L. Doty (Ed.), Handbook of Olfaction and Gustation (3rd ed., pp. 261–278). Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons Inc. (here)
Silas, J., Levy, J. P., & Holmes, A. (2012). Sensitivity of “mu” rhythm modulation to the relevance of an observed movement but not to goal congruency. International Journal of Psychophysiology : Official Journal of the International Organization of Psychophysiology, 6–11. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2012.05.008
Silas, J. & Doty, R.L. (2010) Damm, M., & Vent, J. (2010). No evidence for specific benefit of acupuncture over vitamin B complex in reating persons with olfactory dysfunction. Otolaryngology - Head and Neck Surgery, 143(4), 603. doi: 10.1016/j.otohns.2010.07.008
Silas, J., Levy, J. P., Nielsen, M. K., Slade, L., & Holmes, A. (2010). Sex and individual differences in induced and evoked EEG measures of action observation. Neuropsychologia, 48(9), 2417–26. http://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2010.03.004
