Robin Laycock

Dr Robin Laycock leads the Social and Cognitive Neuroscience (SoCoNeuro) Research Lab, with overarching interests in visual and cognitive neuroscience in health and neurodivergence. His research aims to understand how the visual system contributes to perception, attention, and cognition across development and in clinical contexts.

Robin’s work is grounded in visual neuroscience, with a particular focus on early visual pathways involved in perception and attention. As an expert in the visual system, he applies this foundation to questions in social neuroscience, especially in relation to the visual and neural mechanisms of face and social cue processing.

Research in Robin’s lab combines a range of methodologies, including eye-tracking, behavioural psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG), and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). This multi-method approach enables the investigation of perceptual and cognitive processes at both behavioural and neural levels.

A central focus of Robin’s research is on the visual mechanisms associated with the autism spectrum. Much of this work adopts a dimensional approach to understanding autism, identifying perceptual differences that provide insights into the broader autism phenotype. Related studies explore how anxiety and acute stress influence perception.

Another line of research in the lab investigates the behavioural and neural processes involved in face processing during real-life social interactions, using eye-tracking and fNIRS to better understand how people engage with others in ecologically valid contexts.

Robin collaborates with Professor Flora Wong in a developmental neuroscience project, the BabyFace Study, which uses fNIRS to investigate the development of face and social perception in pre-term born children. This research uses a longitudinal design to understand how pre-term birth and early life experiences shape the developing brain and emerging social abilities.

In addition, the SoCoNeuro Lab is applying eye-tracking and fNIRS to investigate the acute and longer-term effects of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI), commonly referred to as concussion. This work aims to identify subtle disruptions in visual processing, attention, and cognition that may persist beyond the acute phase of injury.

Robin completed his PhD at La Trobe University, where he investigated visual processing pathways involved in motion and object recognition. During this time, he also received training in Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) at the Monash Alfred Psychiatry Research Centre. He is currently affiliated with the Healthy Foundations Research Group.