Christopher R Madan

• PhD
• Professor (Assistant) at University of Nottingham

What makes some words more memorable than others? Words can vary in many dimensions, and a variety of lexical, semantic, and affective properties have previously been associated with variability in recall performance. Free recall data were used from 147 participants across 20 experimental sessions from the Penn Electrophysiology of Encoding and Ret...

Fractal dimensionality (FD) measures the complexity within the folds and ridges of cortical and subcortical structures. We tested the degree that FD might provide a new perspective on the atrophy-compensation hypothesis: age or disease-related atrophy causes a compensatory neural response in the form of increased brain activity in the prefrontal co...

We have used the magnetisation transfer (MT) MRI measure as a primary measure of myelination in both the grey matter (GM) of the 78 cortical automated anatomical labelling (AAL) regions of the brain, and the underlying white matter in each region, in a cohort of healthy adults (aged 19 to 62 years old). The results revealed a significant quadratic...

Cortical gyrification has been found to decrease due to aging, but thus far this has only been examined in cross‐sectional samples. Interestingly, the topography of these age‐related differences in gyrification follows a distinct gradient along the cortex relative to age effects on cortical thickness, likely suggesting a different underlying neurob...

Both memory and decision processes are strongly influenced by the context in which they occur. Here we examined how fluid these context effects are and whether transient background contexts can influence risky choice in experience-based decision making. We created two separate background contexts within an experimental session by presenting distinc...

Facial attractiveness is an important human characteristic. It impacts our personal and interpersonal lives from a very young age and throughout our adulthood in most aspects of our experiences, actions and interactions. Evolutionary and sociobiological hypotheses, findings and interpretations have been posited to explain why facial attractiveness...

In this manuscript, concepts, issues and resolutions that call for conscious awareness in research into the unconscious are meticulously revisited. Historical episodes and episodes of controversial experimentation that are formative rallying points for understanding contemporary attitudes to the unconscious in psychological science and the impact o...

Facial attractiveness is an important human characteristic. It impacts our personal and interpersonal lives from a very young age and throughout our adulthood in most aspects of our experiences, actions and interactions. Evolutionary and sociobiological hypotheses, findings and interpretations have been posited to explain why facial attractiveness...

This chapter explores the availability and accessibility of open-access neuroimaging datasets. It describes how to download datasets using command-line tools (e.g., wget, curl), data management tools such as Datalad, Amazon Web Services (i.e., AWS CLI), and graphical user interface options (e.g., CyberDuck). The chapter emphasizes the importance of...

Perception is an important aspect of our personal lives, interpersonal interactions and professional activities and performance. A large body of psychological research has been dedicated to exploring how perception happens, whether and when it involves conscious awareness and what are the physiological correlates, such as skin-conductance and heart...

The science of learning (learning science) is an interprofessional field that concerns itself with how the brain learns and remembers important information. Learning science has compiled a set of evidence-based strategies, such as distributed practice, retrieval practice, and interleaving, which are quite relevant to continuing professional develop...

The cerebral cortex displays a bewildering diversity of shapes and sizes across and within species. Despite this diversity, we present a universal multi-scale description of primate cortices. We show that all cortical shapes can be described as a set of nested folds of different sizes. As neighbouring folds are gradually merged, the cortices of 11...

Emotional events are often remembered better than neutral ones; however, emotion can also spill over and affect our memory for neutral experiences that precede an emotional event. Theories suggest that emotion can retroactively enhance memory for preceding neutral events that are considered high-priority while impairing memory for events deemed low...

Working memory refers to the process of temporarily storing and manipulating information. The role of the cerebellum in working memory is thought to be achieved through its connections with the prefrontal cortex. Previous studies showed that theta burst stimulation (TBS), a form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, of the cerebellum cha...

Motivational and emotional influences on memory have been studied extensively; however, despite the link between these constructs, they have been studied in separate lines of research, with very little work examining their effects concurrently. The current study takes a novel approach to manipulate motivational and emotional influences orthogonally...

The Oxford Handbook of Human Memory covers the science of human memory, its application to clinical disorders, and its broader implications for learning and memory in real-world contexts. Written by field leaders, the handbook integrates behavioral, neural, and computational evidence with current theories of how humans learn and remember. Following...

From close friends to people on a first date, imagining a shared future appears fundamental to relationships. Yet, no previous research has conceptualized the act of imagination as a socially constructed process that affects how connected we feel to others. The present studies provide a framework for investigating imagination as a collaborative pro...

The science of learning (learning science) is an interprofessional field that concerns itself with how the brain learns and remembers important information. Learning science has compiled a set of evidence-based strategies, such as distributed practice, retrieval practice, and interleaving, which are quite relevant to continuing professional develop...

The science of learning (learning science) is an interprofessional field that concerns itself with how the brain learns and remembers important information. Learning science has compiled a set of evidence-based strategies, such as distributed practice, retrieval practice, and interleaving, which are quite relevant to continuing professional develop...

The cerebral cortex displays a bewildering diversity of shapes and sizes across and within species. Despite this diversity, we present a universal multi-scale description of primate cortices. We show that all cortical shapes can be described as a set of nested folds of different sizes. As neighbouring folds are gradually merged, the cortices of 11...

Determining post-PhD career options is a challenge for many Psychology PhD graduates. Here I provide a comprehensive overview of the diverse career trajectories available to graduates, drawing from interviews with 53 PhD graduates conducted as part of the two-volume Academia and the World Beyond book series. From these, I conducted a hierarchical q...

With far more PhDs graduating than academic positions available, we need to challenge the assumption that a PhD traditionally leads to an academic career—either as a guarantee or as a lifelong commitment. This book is comprised of interviews with those thriving in non-academic roles showcasing the many alternatives. From these interviews, I propose...

Introduction Working memory refers to the process of temporarily storing and manipulating information. The role of the cerebellum in working memory is thought to be achieved through its connections with the prefrontal cortex. Previous studies showed that theta burst stimulation (TBS), a form of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, of the c...

Signal detection theory (SDT) is a multi-component ratio method for assessing perceptual performance. It can be applied in backward masking, such as the presentation of a brief target image followed by a noise image that can render a target imperceptible. Previously, we implemented a methodology for backward masking that included individualized thr...

In this manuscript, we discourse concepts, issues and resolutions that call for conscious awareness in research on the unconscious. We discuss subjects that contribute to our knowledge of the unconscious as a concept. We discuss seminal historical episodes and episodes of controversial experimentation that are formative rallying points for understa...

In this manuscript, we discourse concepts, issues and resolutions that call for conscious awareness in research on the unconscious. We discuss subjects that contribute to our knowledge of the unconscious as a concept. We discuss seminal historical episodes and episodes of controversial experimentation that are formative rallying points for understa...

Signal detection theory (SDT) is a multi-component ratio method for assessing perceptual performance. It can be applied in backward masking, such as the presentation of a brief target image followed by a noise image that can render a target imperceptible. Previously, we implemented a methodology for backward masking that included individualized thr...

Fractal analysis has emerged as a powerful tool for characterizing irregular and complex patterns found in the nervous system. This characterization is typically applied by estimating the fractal dimension (FD), a scalar index that describes the topological complexity of the irregular components of the nervous system, both at the macroscopic and mi...

Our memories for temporal duration may be colored by the emotions we experience during an event. While emotion generally enhances some aspects of memory, temporal duration has been shown to be particularly susceptible to emotion-induced distortions. However, prior work has faced difficulty when studying this phenomenon, having to make some trade-of...

Our memories for temporal duration may be coloured by the emotions we experience during an event. While emotion generally enhances some aspects of memory, temporal duration has been shown to be particularly susceptible to emotion-induced distortions. However, prior work has faced difficulty when studying this phenomenon, having to make some trade o...

Memory profoundly define individual beliefs and identity, shaping how societies make decisions. Five key memory phenomena include—first impressions and the primacy effect, risky decision-making and memory availability, information reliability and source memory, music preferences and the reminiscence bump, and long-term planning and episodic future...

The cerebral cortex displays a bewildering diversity of shapes and sizes across and within species. Despite this diversity, we present a parsimonious and universal multi-scale description of primate cortices in full agreement with empirical data, by expressing cortical shapes explicitly as hierarchical compositions of folds across spatial scales. A...

Background Preventing medical students entering cycles of underperformance following assessment is a priority due to the consequences for the student, faculty, and wider society. The benefits from feedback may be inadequately accessed by students in difficulty due to the emotional response evoked by examination failure. This study aims to explore m...

The cerebral cortex displays a bewildering diversity of shapes and sizes across and within species. Despite this diversity, we present a parsimonious and universal multi-scale description of primate cortices in full agreement with empirical data, by expressing cortical shapes explicitly as hierarchical compositions of folds across spatial scales. A...

This chapter explores the availability and accessibility of open-access neuroimaging datasets. It describes how to download datasets using command-line tools (e.g., wget, curl), data management tools such as Datalad, Amazon Web Services (i.e., AWS CLI), and graphical user interface options (e.g. CyberDuck). The chapter emphasizes the importance of...

Many real-world decisions involving rare events also involve extreme outcomes. Despite this confluence, decisions-from-experience research has only examined the impact of rarity and extremity in isolation. With rare events, people typically choose as if they underestimate the probability of a rare outcome happening. Separately, people typically ove...

Determining post-PhD career options is a challenge for many Psychology PhD graduates. Here I provide a comprehensive overview of the diverse career trajectories available to graduates. Drawing from interviews with 53 PhD graduates conducted as part of the two-volume Academia and the World Beyond book series. Specifically, a hierarchical qualitative...

The aim of the current research was to explore whether we can improve the recognition of cross-cultural freely-expressed emotional faces in British participants. We tested several methods for improving the recognition of freely-expressed emotional faces, such as different methods for presenting other-culture expressions of emotion from individuals...

From close friends to people on a first date, imagining a shared future appears fundamental to relationships. Yet, no previous research has conceptualized the act of imagination as a socially constructed process that affects how connected we feel to others. The present studies provide a novel framework for investigating imagination as a collaborati...

With the increase in large multimodal cohorts and high‐throughput technologies, the potential for discovering novel biomarkers is no longer limited by data set size. Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning approaches have been developed to detect novel biomarkers and interactions in complex data sets. We discuss exemplar uses and evaluate...

Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) approaches are increasingly being used in dementia research. However, several methodological challenges exist that may limit the insights we can obtain from high‐dimensional data and our ability to translate these findings into improved patient outcomes. To improve reproducibility and replicabi...

Introduction: Artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroimaging offer new opportunities for diagnosis and prognosis of dementia. Methods: We systematically reviewed studies reporting AI for neuroimaging in diagnosis and/or prognosis of cognitive neurodegenerative diseases. Results: A total of 255 studies were identified. Most studies relied on the...

Mental representations of our bodies are thought to influence how we interact with our surroundings. We can examine these mental representations through motor imagery, the imagination of movement using scalp EEG recordings. The visual modality of motor imagery emphasises 'seeing' the imagined movement and is associated with increased activity in th...

Introduction: The use of applied modeling in dementia risk prediction, diagnosis, and prognostics will have substantial public health benefits, particularly as "deep phenotyping" cohorts with multi-omics health data become available. Methods: This narrative review synthesizes understanding of applied models and digital health technologies, in te...

Memories of our personal past are not exact accounts of what occurred. Instead, memory reconstructs the past in adaptive-though not always faithful-ways. Using a naturalistic design, we asked how the visual perspective adopted in the mind's eye when recalling the past-namely, an "own eyes" versus "observer" perspective-relates to the stability of a...

Most of the commonly used and endorsed guidelines for systematic review protocols and reporting standards have been developed for intervention research. These excellent guidelines have been adopted as the gold-standard for systematic reviews as an evidence synthesis method. In the current paper, we highlight some issues that may arise from adopting...

Current progress in the artificial intelligence domain has led to the development of various types of AI-powered dementia assessments, which can be employed to identify patients at the early stage of dementia. It can revolutionize the dementia care settings. It is essential that the medical community be aware of various AI assessments and choose th...

Many real-world decisions involving rare events also involve extreme outcomes. Despite this confluence, decisions-from-experience research has focused on the impact of rare but non-extreme outcomes. In those situations, people typically choose as if they underestimate the probability of a rare outcome happening. Separately, people have been shown t...

Subjective memory evaluation is important for assessing memory abilities and complaints alongside objective measures. In research and clinical settings, questionnaires are used to examine perceived memory ability, memory complaints, and memory beliefs/knowledge. Although they provide a structured measure of self-reported memory, there is some debat...

In recent years, the scientific community has called for improvements in the credibility, robustness and reproducibility of research, characterized by increased interest and promotion of open and transparent research practices. While progress has been positive, there is a lack of consideration about how this approach can be embedded into undergradu...

Medical education research has been adopting principles from psychology to improve student learning. Here is an overview and illustrative examples of six evidence-based learning strategies that have been thoroughly researched and validated in the psychology literature: spacing, interleaving, retrieval practice, elaboration, dual coding, and concret...

Early detection of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) has been a major focus of current research efforts to guide interventions at the earliest stages of the disease. Subtle changes to the brain might be observed with neuroimaging techniques, even before symptoms surface. We interrogated brain images obtained with Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) from two la...

Previous research on the physiological and eliciting correlates of sadness has provided controversial results. Sadness has been associated with failure, defeat, and positive cognitive changes, positive reappraisal, and also diverse physiological responses. This could be interpreted to suggest that different emotional states associated with prototyp...

On-going, large-scale neuroimaging initiatives can aid in uncovering neurobiological causes and correlates of poor mental health, disease pathology, and many other important conditions. As projects grow in scale with hundreds, even thousands, of individual participants and scans collected, quantification of brain structures by automated algorithms...

Episodic memory, the ability to remember specific events from one's personal past, has been the subject of research for several decades, with a particular emphasis on its relationship with consciousness. In the December 2022 issue of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Budson, Richman, and Kensinger shed new light on this complex topic with a compr...

Introduction: Machine learning (ML) has been extremely successful in identifying key features from high-dimensional datasets and executing complicated tasks with human expert levels of accuracy or greater. Methods: We summarize and critically evaluate current applications of ML in dementia research and highlight directions for future research. Resu...

Introduction: Machine learning (ML) has been extremely successful in identifying key features from high-dimensional datasets and executing complicated tasks with human expert levels of accuracy or greater. Methods: We summarize and critically evaluate current applications of ML in dementia research and highlight directions for future research....

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing the accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment...

The neonatal period represents a critical phase of human brain development. During this time, the brain shows a dramatic increase in size, but it remains largely unclear how the morphology of the human brain develops in early post-partum life. Here we show that human newborns undergo a rapid formation of brain shape, beyond the expected growth in b...

In this manuscript, we provide a discourse of issues and resolutions that we should be conscious of when doing research in the unconscious using backward masking of faces. First, we revisit subjects that are contributing for understanding the unconscious as a concept. These involve historical episodes and early episodes of controversial experimenta...

Unbiased individual unconsciousness is a methodology that employs non-parametric receiver operating characteristics and Bayesian analyses to provide estimations for thresholds for subjective visual suppression. It can enable a researcher to define among brief durations (e.g., 8.33 or 16.67 or 25 ms), per participant and elicitor type, the threshold...

In this manuscript, we provide a discourse of issues and resolutions that we should be conscious of when doing research in the unconscious using backward masking of faces. First, we revisit subjects that are contributing for understanding the unconscious as a concept. These involve historical episodes and early episodes of controversial experimenta...

Unbiased individual unconsciousness is a methodology that employs non-parametric receiver operating characteristics and Bayesian analyses to provide estimations for thresholds for subjective visual suppression. It can enable a researcher to define among brief durations (e.g., 8.33 or 16.67 or 25 ms), per participant and elicitor type, the threshold...

Decision-making involves weighing up the outcome likelihood, potential rewards, and effort needed. Previous research has focused on the trade-offs between risk and reward or between effort and reward. Here we bridge this gap and examine how risk in effort levels influences choice. With outcome uncertainty, people’s risk attitudes follow a fourfold...

The aim of the current research was to explore whether we can improve the recognition of cross-cultural freely expressed emotional faces in British participants. We tested several methods for improving the recognition of freely expressed emotional faces, such as different methods for presenting other-culture expressions of emotion from individuals...

When people make risky decisions based on past experience, they must rely on memory. The nature of the memory representations that support these decisions is not yet well understood. A key question concerns the extent to which people recall specific past episodes or whether they have learned a more abstract rule from their past experience. To addre...

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is important for delivering safe patient care and can be enhanced through interprofessional education (IPE). In postgraduate medical education, the most effective model for delivering IPE remains unclear. A multi-site non-randomized mixed methods study was undertaken to investigate the effectiveness of a simula...

When deciding between different courses of action, both the potential outcomes and the costs of making a choice should be considered. These costs include the cognitive and physical effort of the different options. In many decision contexts, the outcome of the choice is guaranteed but the amount of effort required to achieve that outcome is unknown....

Aim: Recent evidence suggests that the body image disturbance often observed in patients with anorexia nervosa also extends to the body schema. According to the embodiment approach, the body schema is not only involved in motor execution, but also in tasks that only require a mental simulation of a movement such as motor imagery, mental rotation o...

Recalling names is a difficult task in everyday life and names are often forgotten. The face-name mnemonic strategy proposes to improve name recall by assigning semantic information to face-name pairs through imagery. The technique involves three steps: transforming the name into an imageable object, selecting a prominent facial feature, and imagin...

Memories of our personal past are not exact accounts of what occurred. Instead, memory reconstructs the past in adaptive–though not always faithful–ways. Using a naturalistic design, here we asked how the visual perspective adopted in the mind’s eye when recalling the past–namely an “own” eyes versus “observer” perspective–relates to the stability...

The primate cerebral cortex can take on a bewildering diversity of shapes and sizes within and across species, whilst maintaining archetypal qualities that make it instantly recognisable as a "brain". Here we present a new way of expressing the shape of a cortex explicitly as the hierarchical composition of structures across spatial scales. In comp...

How well can social scientists predict societal change, and what processes underlie their predictions? To answer these questions, we ran two forecasting tournaments testing accuracy of predictions of societal change in domains commonly studied in the social sciences: ideological preferences, political polarization, life satisfaction, sentiment on s...

A common question posed to PhD students from friends and family is: ‘What will you do after?’ But many students are too focused on the PhD itself and have not yet had a chance to sufficiently think about post-PhD life. Academic careers share many commonalities with many non-academic careers, with skills learned within academia being valuable in oth...

Memory impairment following an acquired brain injury can negatively impact daily living and quality of life—but can be reduced by memory rehabilitation. Here, we review the literature on four approaches for memory rehabilitation and their associated strategies: (1) the restorative approach, aimed at a return to pre-morbid functioning, (2) the knowl...

Subjective memory evaluation is important for assessing memory abilities and complaints, alongside objective measures. In both research and clinical settings, questionnaires are used to examine memory beliefs and knowledge, perceived memory ability, and memory complaints. Although they provide a structured measure of self-reported memory, there is...

The use of interleaving as a form of contextual variation can enhance, impair, or have no effect on memory. We hypothesise that this variability is due to task demands interacting with the amount of available cognitive resources an individual can mobilise. Using two memory interleaving task paradigms, desirable difficulties and the complex span, we...