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Paul Dockree

Associate Professor of Psychology

Paul is a cognitive neuroscientist interested in mechanisms of attention and spontaneous thought by means of neuropsychological and neurophysiological investigation. A key focus is to better understand how, why and when lapses of attention, episodes of mind wandering and deterioration of sustained attention occur. To this end Paul’s group have developed novel paradigms to track attention and mind wandering over time and have examined neural, pupillometric, and respiratory predictors of these states. Paul’s research also has a translational emphasis to understand changes in functioning caused by traumatic brain injury, stroke and ageing and the group has examined ways to mitigate attentional impairment through cognitive training, pharmacological, and transcranial brain stimulation approaches.

Background

Paul Dockree is an Associate Professor in Psychology and based in the Institute of Neuroscience at Trinity College Dublin. His research interests lie in the area of Cognitive Neuroscience. In particular, he investigates mechanisms of attention and spontaneous thought and how these change as a result of brain damage, aging and neurodegeneration. Paul received his PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Reading, U.K. He then moved to Trinity College Dublin as a Postdoctoral Fellow and subsequently a Principal Investigator in the Institute of Neuroscience. Paul’s research has been funded by the Health Research Board, Marie Curie and, most recently, an Irish Research Council Laureate Consolidator Award. He has published widely in peer-reviewed journals, which can be viewed here.

Key Publications

  • Plini, E. R. G., O'Hanlon, E., Boyle, R., Sibilia, F., Rikhye, G., Kenney, J., . . . Dockree, P. M. (2021). Examining the Role of the Noradrenergic Locus Coeruleus for Predicting Attention and Brain Maintenance in Healthy Old Age and Disease: An MRI Structural Study for the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Cells, 10(7). doi:10.3390/cells10071829 

  • Moran, C. N., McGovern, D. P., Warren, G., Gralaigh, R. O., Kenney, J. P. M., Smeaton, A., & Dockree, P. M. (2021). Young and restless, old and focused: Age-differences in mind-wandering frequency and phenomenology. Psychol Aging, 36(2), 252-267. doi:10.1037/pag0000526

  • Brosnan, M. B., Dockree, P. M., Harty, S., Pearce, D. J., Levenstein, J. M., Gillebert, C. R., . . . Demeyere, N. (2021). Lost in Time: Temporal Monitoring Elicits Clinical Decrements in Sustained Attention Post-Stroke. J Int Neuropsychol Soc, 1-9. doi:10.1017/S1355617721000242

  • Brosnan, M. B., Arvaneh, M., Harty, S., Maguire, T., O'Connell, R., Robertson, I. H., & Dockree, P. M. (2018). Prefrontal Modulation of Visual Processing and Sustained Attention in Aging, a tDCS-EEG Coregistration Approach. J Cogn Neurosci, 30(11), 1630-1645. doi:10.1162/jocn_a_01307

  • Dockree, P. M., Barnes, J. J., Matthews, N., Dean, A. J., Abe, R., Nandam, L. S., . . . O'Connell, R. G. (2017). The Effects of Methylphenidate on the Neural Signatures of Sustained Attention. Biol Psychiatry, 82(9), 687-694. doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2017.04.016

Contact

dockreep@tcd.ie

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