Staff profiles

Learning, Memory and Cognition research group with access to a state of the art 64 channel ERP lab (BioSemi) recently acquired by the Department of Psychology.

Antonio has used behavioural, neuropsychological and psychophysiological techniques to study various research topics in the course of his academic career. His research interests include:

• Cognitive psychophysiology (e.g., event-related brain potentials)
• Neuropsychology (e.g., hemispheric laterality)
• Cognitive psychology (e.g., implicit/explicit memory)
• Clinical psychology (e.g., depression among spinal cord injury patients)
• Health psychology (e.g., cannabis use and binge drinking)
• Economic psychology (e.g., economic cycles)

Part of Antonio's work has been done in collaboration with Dr Fernando Diaz from the University of Santiago de Compostela (Spain) and Dr Geert van Boxtel from Tilburg University (The Netherlands). His research on event-related brain potentials has been funded by Xunta de Galicia and Diputación Provincial de A Coruña (Spain).

• 2001, Xunta de Galicia, a project entitled: "Brain electrical activity mapping in patients with spinal cord injury and controls"
• 2003-04, Diputación Provincial de A Coruña, a project entitled "Implicaciones cerebrales tras la lesión de la médula espinal: Posibilidades de rehabilitación"

His research on hemispheric lateralisation was done in collaboration with students from Nottingham Trent University and has been funded by The Wellcome Trust, Nottingham Trent University and Nuffield Foundation.

• 2009, Research grant to carry out the project "Hemispheric laterality for emotion recognition and word detection in schizotypal personality: Evidence from dichotic listening" awarded by The Wellcome Trust
• 2009, Research grant to carry out the project "Hemispheric specialisation and interhemispheric cooperation: An integrated neuropsychological perspective of linguistic processing" awarded by Nottingham Trent University
• 2010, Research grant to carry out the project "The role of cerebral interhemispheric analysis in processing mathematical equations" awarded by Nuffield Foundation.

Current research interests include:

• Event-related brain potentials in areas such as attention, memory and motor processes (e.g., P300 and readiness potential)
• Hemispheric laterality regarding various hypothetical constructs
• Cannabis use and personality traits

Antonio has been invited to review a small number of research projects by research councils and a few articles and books for various publishing companies.

Antonio is always happy to talk to potential PhD students interested in conducting research projects in one of the following areas: Cognitive Psychophysiology (e.g., event-related brain potentials -particularly now that the Department of Psychology hosts a brand new ERP system), Neuropsychology (e.g., hemispheric laterality), Cognitive Psychology (e.g., implicit/explicit memory), Clinical Psychology (e.g., depression among spinal cord injury patients), Health Psychology (e.g., cannabis use and binge drinking) or Economic Psychology (e.g., economic cycles). Students with interesting ideas in any of these areas who want to test them using quantitative methods are most welcome to come and see him or write to him to explore how best to put together a viable research plan and take the initiative forward.

National and international IT companies developing hardware and/or software for the measurement of brain electrical activity or test companies involved in the development of (Neuro)psychological tests and in need of academic input or support at any stage of the R&D process are welcome to contact Dr Castro. He is particularly interested in supporting EPSRC, MRC or ESRC CASE studentships in Cognitive Neuroscience, Neuropsychology, Cognitive Psychology, Health Psychology and Economic Psychology.