Dr Peter Murphy
Biography
Dr. Peter Murphy (B.A., Dip.Stat., Ph.D.) joined the Department of Psychology as an Assistant Professor/Lecturer in September 2022. Before joining Maynooth University, he graduated with a B.A. (Hons) in Psychology from Trinity College Dublin in 2009 and completed his Ph.D., also at Trinity College, in 2012. He worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Leiden University, The Netherlands (2012-2015), and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany (2015-2020), and returned to Trinity College to complete a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowship (2021-2022).
Peter has published his research findings in leading international neuroscience and general science journals including Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Communications, eLife, and Journal of Neuroscience. He has won funding from the European Commission (Horizon 2020) and Irish Research Council, and was awarded the Early Career Investigator Award by Neuroscience Ireland in recognition of his research.
Peter has published his research findings in leading international neuroscience and general science journals including Nature Neuroscience, Neuron, Nature Communications, eLife, and Journal of Neuroscience. He has won funding from the European Commission (Horizon 2020) and Irish Research Council, and was awarded the Early Career Investigator Award by Neuroscience Ireland in recognition of his research.
Research Interests
Dr. Murphy investigates how brains encode information about the world (sensory
perception), maintain that information over time (short-term or ‘working’
memory), and prioritize or combine it in ways that allow us to make good
decisions (decision-making, cognitive control, attention). He also studies how
these cognitive functions might be altered in aging and psychiatric populations.
This work makes use of several methods and approaches: carefully designed paradigms
for psychophysical interrogation of human task performance; measurement of
brain activity using non-invasive methods (EEG, fMRI, MEG); and monitoring changes
in arousal by measuring pupil size. A theme common to much of Dr. Murphy’s work
is the use of computational models to link neural and behavioural observations
and arrive at deeper insights about cognitive and neural mechanisms. This can involve
using normative models to assess (departures from) optimal strategies; fitting algorithmic cognitive models to decompose observed behaviour into latent component processes; and interrogating hand-tuned and/or trained neural networks to understand neural implementation.
Research Projects
Peer Reviewed Journal
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | van den Brink, RL; Hagena, K; Wilming, N; Murphy, PR; Buchel, C; Donner, TH (2023) 'Flexible sensory-motor mapping rules manifest in correlated variability of stimulus and action codes across the brain'. Neuron, . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2022.11.009 | |
| 2022 | Tromp, Jeshua and Nieuwenhuis, Sander and Murphy, Peter (2022) 'The Effects of Neural Gain on Reactive Cognitive Control'. Computational Brain & Behavior, . | |
| 2022 | Becker, Leonie F and Tunc, Sinem and Murphy, Peter and B\"aumer, Tobias and Weissbach, Anne and Pauly, Martje G and Al-Shorafat, Duha M and Saranza, Gerard and Lang, Anthony E and Beste, Christian and others (2022) 'Time estimation and arousal responses in dopa-responsive dystonia'. Scientific Reports, 12 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-17545-w | |
| 2021 | Desender, Kobe and Ridderinkhof, K Richard and Murphy, Peter R (2021) 'Understanding neural signals of post-decisional performance monitoring: An integrative review'. eLife, 10 . https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.67556 [Full-Text] | |
| 2021 | Murphy, Peter R and Wilming, Niklas and Hernandez-Bocanegra, Diana C and Prat-Ortega, Genis and Donner, Tobias H (2021) 'Adaptive circuit dynamics across human cortex during evidence accumulation in changing environments'. Nature Neuroscience, 24 (7). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-021-00839-z [Full-Text] | |
| 2021 | van den Brink, Ruud L and Murphy, Peter R and Desender, Kobe and de Ru, Nicole and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2021) 'Temporal expectation hastens decision onset but does not affect evidence quality'. Journal of Neuroscience, 41 (1). https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1103-20.2020 [Full-Text] | |
| 2020 | Melnychuk, Michael Christopher and Murphy, Peter R and Robertson, Ian H and Balsters, Joshua H and Dockree, Paul M (2020) 'Prediction of attentional focus from respiration with simple feed-forward and time delay neural networks'. Neural Computing and Applications, 32 (18). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-020-04841-7 | |
| 2020 | Wilming, Niklas and Murphy, Peter R and Meyniel, Florent and Donner, Tobias H (2020) 'Large-scale dynamics of perceptual decision information across human cortex'. Nature Communications, 11 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-18826-6 | |
| 2020 | Naber, Marnix and Murphy, Peter (2020) 'Pupillometric investigation into the speed-accuracy trade-off in a visuo-motor aiming task'. Psychophysiology, 57 (3). https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13499 | |
| 2019 | Desender, Kobe and Murphy, Peter and Boldt, Annika and Verguts, Tom and Yeung, Nick (2019) 'A postdecisional neural marker of confidence predicts Information-Seeking in Decision-Making'. Journal of Neuroscience, 39 (17). https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2620-18.2019 | |
| 2018 | O’Connell, Redmond G and Murphy, Peter R (2018) 'U-turns in the brain'. Nature Neuroscience, 21 (4). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41593-018-0122-4 | |
| 2018 | Melnychuk, Michael Christopher and Dockree, Paul M and O (2018) 'Coupling of respiration and attention via the locus coeruleus: Effects of meditation and pranayama'. Psychophysiology, 55 (9). https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.13091 | |
| 2018 | Jepma, Marieke and Brown, Stephen BRE and Murphy, Peter R and Koelewijn, Stephany C and de Vries, Boukje and van den Maagdenberg, Arn M and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2018) 'Noradrenergic and cholinergic modulation of belief updating'. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 30 (12). https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01317 | |
| 2017 | Harty, Siobhan; Murphy, Peter R; Robertson, Ian H; O'Connell, Redmond G (2017) 'Parsing the neural signatures of reduced error detection in older age'. NeuroImage, 161 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2017.08.032 | |
| 2016 | Warren, Christopher M. and Murphy, Peter R. and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2016) 'Cognitive control, dynamic salience and the imperative toward computational accounts of neuromodulatory function'. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 39 . | |
| 2016 | Tona, Klodiana-Daphne and Murphy, Peter R and Brown, Stephen BRE and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2016) 'The accessory stimulus effect is mediated by phasic arousal: A pupillometry study'. Psychophysiology, . https://doi.org/10.1111/psyp.12653 | |
| 2016 | Jepma, Marieke and Murphy, Peter R and Nassar, Matthew R and Rangel-Gomez, Mauricio and Meeter, Martijn and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2016) 'Catecholaminergic regulation of learning rate in a dynamic environment'. PLoS Computational Biology, 12 (10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1005171 | |
| 2016 | Van Den Brink, Ruud L and Murphy, Peter R and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2016) 'Pupil diameter tracks lapses of attention'. PLoS ONE, 11 (10). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0165274 | |
| 2016 | van den Brink, Ruud L and Pfeffer, Thomas and Warren, Christopher M and Murphy, Peter R and Tona, Klodiana-Daphne and van der Wee, Nic JA and Giltay, Eric and van Noorden, Martijn S and Rombouts, Serge ARB and Donner, Tobias H and others (2016) 'Catecholaminergic neuromodulation shapes intrinsic MRI functional connectivity in the human brain'. Journal of Neuroscience, 36 (30). https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0744-16.2016 | |
| 2016 | Urai, Anne E and Murphy, Peter R (2016) 'Commentary: Sensory integration dynamics in a hierarchical network explains choice probabilities in cortical area MT'. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 10 . | |
| 2016 | Murphy, Peter R and van Moort, Marianne L and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2016) 'The pupillary orienting response predicts adaptive behavioral adjustment after errors'. PLoS ONE, 11 (3). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0151763 | |
| 2016 | Murphy, Peter R and Boonstra, Evert and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2016) 'Global gain modulation generates time-dependent urgency during perceptual choice in humans'. Nature Communications, 7 (1). https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms13526 | |
| 2015 | Murphy, Peter R and Robertson, Ian H and Harty, Siobhan and O (2015) 'Neural evidence accumulation persists after choice to inform metacognitive judgments'. eLife, 4 . https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.11946 | |
| 2015 | Twomey, Deirdre M and Murphy, Peter R and Kelly, Simon P and O (2015) 'The classic P300 encodes a build-to-threshold decision variable'. European Journal of Neuroscience, 42 (1). https://doi.org/10.1111/ejn.12936 | |
| 2014 | Murphy, Peter R and Vandekerckhove, Joachim and Nieuwenhuis, Sander (2014) 'Pupil-linked arousal determines variability in perceptual decision making'. PLoS Computational Biology, 10 (9). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1003854 | |
| 2014 | Murphy, Peter R and O (2014) 'Pupil diameter covaries with BOLD activity in human locus coeruleus'. Human Brain Mapping, 35 (8). https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.22466 | |
| 2012 | Murphy, Peter R and Robertson, Ian H and Allen, Darren and Hester, Robert and O (2012) 'An electrophysiological signal that precisely tracks the emergence of error awareness'. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6 . https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2012.00065 | |
| 2011 | Murphy, Peter R and Robertson, Ian H and Balsters, Joshua H and O (2011) 'Pupillometry and P3 index the locus coeruleus--noradrenergic arousal function in humans'. Psychophysiology, 48 (11). https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-8986.2011.01226.x | |
| 2023 | D'Agostini M.; Burger A.M.; Franssen M.; Perkovic A.; Claes S.; von Leupoldt A.; Murphy P.R.; Van Diest I. (2023) 'Short bursts of transcutaneous auricular vagus nerve stimulation enhance evoked pupil dilation as a function of stimulation parameters'. Cortex, 159 :233-253. [DOI] |
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