Biography
Fiona Newell is an Associate Professor in the School of Psychology, Trinity College Dublin and her main research activities are based in the Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience. Prof Newell’s research interests are in human perceptual processes, particularly processes involved in the recognition of people, objects and scenes. The main goal of her research is to provide a better understanding of how information is shared across the senses and to elucidate the brain processes involved in the perception of our world across the main human sensory systems.
More recently, Prof Newell has developed a research programme investigating the effect of developmental processes on perceptual abilities and is exploring, in particular, how the senses can combine information to benefit perception throughout the lifespan. Under the TRIL project, Prof Newell has embarked on an investigation of the multisensory factors affecting loss of balance and posture control in older persons and her latest research offers important insights into these processes. Furthermore, these investigations suggest that perceptual function may be rehabilitated through multisensory training procedures. Prof Newell also hopes to provide insight into how multisensory integration may help prevent perceptual decline in one sensory modality as a consequence of ageing. Her research findings suggest a new model of care for older persons in that perceptual ability, and not just sensory acuity, is important to determine in order to more accurately assess risk of falling and to prevent the incidence of falls in older persons.
