Dr Sam Strong
Lecturer, Optometry | Aston University
Birmingham, UNITED KINGDOM
Dr Strong's main area of research interest is visual perception, with a focus on motion processing related to optic flow.
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Biography
Dr Strong's main area of research interest is visual perception, with a focus on motion processing related to optic flow. She is also interested in how the brain processes visual durations/temporal experience. Currently, she is investigating this through two key strategies:
1) Investigation of motion-sensitive visual areas in the human brain.
These projects aim to identify the functional differences and connections between motion-sensitive visual areas in the human brain (MT/TO-1, MST/TO-2, V3A). This involves the use of neuroimaging (fMRI), neurostimulation (TMS), and behavioural measures (psychophysics).
2) Impact of pathology on perception.
Increases in blur or reduction in contrast can affect perception of moving scenes; these projects investigate the threshold-level perception of individuals with cataracts (with PhD student Ayah Al-Rababah).
Areas of Expertise (6)
Visual Perception
Optic Flow
Visual Durations
Motion Processing
Temporal Experience
Cataracts
Accomplishments (4)
'Best Oral Presentation', AVA Meeting
2018
Silmo Academy Bursary
2017
'Student Travel Award', VSS
2016
'Best Oral Presentation', BCOVS
2013, 2014, 2015
Education (2)
University of Bradford: PhD, Vision Science 2015
University of York: BSc (Hons) Psychology 2012
Links (5)
Media Appearances (1)
Sam Strong
More Than Optics online
2022-01-05
Sam Strong is a lecturer in Optometry at Aston University, having graduated from the University of Bradford with a PhD in Vision Science in 2015, after initially graduating with a BSc in Psychology from the University of York. In this episode of More Than Optics, Sam tells Jayshree and Bhavin about how her other passion for illustrating has helped her in the day job, as well as the challenges of teaching online during the pandemic.
Articles (3)
Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Mapping for Perceptual and Cognitive Functions
Lesion-to-Symptom Mapping2022 Transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) is a powerful neuroscience technique that provides a mechanism to study causal brain-behavior relationships in both healthy and damaged/diseased brains with a high-degree of both spatial and temporal precision. In this chapter, we take you through the mechanisms of TMS and discuss practical aspects of using TMS for mapping perceptual and cognitive functions in both basic science and clinical contexts.
Motion perception and the temporal metaphysics of consciousness
Journal of Consciousness Studies2021 This paper defends a 'punctivist' conception of consciousness from recent attacks by Ian Phillips and Matthew Soteriou. As we intend it, 'punctivism' is the view that a subject's experience over some interval is determined by their experiential states at each instant during it. Phillips and Soteriou both offer ingenious arguments purporting to show that the punctivist is unable to make sense of motion perception; and that only by adopting an 'holistic' conception -- whereby a subject's instantaneous experiences are determined by their experience over the interval -- can we make sense of the puzzles such phenomena pose. We contend that both arguments invoke dubious claims, their proffered solutions come with highly controversial commitments, and, if we take punctivism seriously, it is difficult to see why the so-called puzzles should be puzzling in the first place. A punctivist model of motion perception is proposed in response, and objections anticipated.
An enhanced role for right hV5/MT+ in the analysis of motion in the contra-and ipsi-lateral visual hemi-fields Authors Samantha L Strong, Edward H Silson, André D Gouws, A
Behavioural Brain Research2019 Previous experiments have demonstrated that transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) of human V5/MT+, in either the left or right cerebral hemisphere, can induce deficits in visual motion perception in their respective contra- and ipsi-lateral visual hemi-fields. However, motion deficits in the ipsi-lateral hemi-field are greater when TMS is applied to V5/MT + in the right hemisphere relative to the left hemisphere. One possible explanation for this asymmetry might lie in differential stimulation of sub-divisions within V5/MT + across the two hemispheres. V5/MT + has two major sub-divisions; MT/TO-1 and MST/TO-2, the latter area contains neurons with large receptive fields (RFs) that extend up to 15° further into the ipsi-lateral hemi-field than the former. We wanted to examine whether applying TMS to MT/TO-1 and MST/TO-2 separately could explain the previously reported functional asymmetries for ipsi-lateral motion processing in V5/MT + across right and left cerebral hemispheres. MT/TO-1 and MST/TO-2 were identified in seven subjects using fMRI localisers.
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