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Dr Rocco Chiou

Positions held:
  • Lecturer, School of Psychological Sciences
Email
  • Overview

    Overview

    Biography

    My research training began in Australia, where I worked at Macquarie University with Anina Rich on the role of the anterior temporal cortex in conceptual integration and synaesthesia. After completing my PhD, I was awarded a Wellcome Trust–funded Stepping Stones Fellowship at the University of Manchester, which brought me to the UK to collaborate with Matthew Lambon Ralph on the neural basis of semantic memory. I subsequently received a Sir Henry Wellcome Fellowship, which supported my research at the University of Cambridge in collaboration with Beth Jefferies, John Duncan, and Matthew Lambon Ralph on the neural mechanisms of goal-directed semantic operations. Following these two Wellcome Fellowships, I worked as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Oxford with Daniel Margulies on multisensory integration and mental imagery. In April 2023, I joined the University of Surrey as a Lecturer, and in September 2025, I took up a lectureship at Birkbeck, University of London.

    Web profiles

    ORCID

    0000-0002-3009-8075
  • Research

    Research

    Research interests

    • The neurocognitive mechanisms of semantic memory
    • The neurocognitive mechanisms of executive control
    • The neurocognitive mechanisms of mental imagery
    • The neurocognitive mechanisms of synaesthesia

    Research overview

    Visit the Research section of my website for more info about my current and past research. In essence, my research focuses on 3 different aspects of human cognition and their associated brain structures.

    My first line of research investigates how the brain represents different forms of conceptual knowledge—for example, our knowledge about objects, words, people, and places. Although distinct types of knowledge preferentially engage specific cortical regions, some areas are consistently recruited across domains, notably the bilateral anterior temporal lobes (ATL) and angular gyri (AG). Using functional MRI and brain stimulation, I have been examining the complementary roles of the ATL, AG, and content-selective regions (mostly in the perceptual and motoric systems) in supporting conceptual representations.

    My second line of research examines how the brain retrieves and manipulates conceptual knowledge, and how these processes differ from operations on perceptual representations. This work focuses on the prefrontal cortex (PFC), especially how the PFC interacts with other brain regions to enable goal-directed operation on the retrieval and manipulation of semantic memory. Here again, I employ fMRI and brain stimulation to delineate the neural mechanisms underlying these processes.

    My third line of research explores how the brain integrates information across different sensory modalities. This includes both typical multisensory integration and atypical forms such as synaesthesia. I address these questions using a combination of behavioural psychophysics, fMRI, brain stimulation, and meta-analytic approaches.

  • Supervision and teaching

    Supervision and teaching

    Teaching

    Teaching modules

    • Neuroimaging Methods (PSYC007H7)
    • Neuroscience (PSYC044H5)
    • Behavioural Neuroscience (SCPS208H7)
    • Topics in Cognition: Perception and Awareness (SCPS209H7)
    • Neuropsychology (SCPS227H6)