David Watson
Research Associate

Profile

Biography

I completed my PhD at the University of York with Prof. Timothy Andrews and Dr Tom Hartley. My doctoral dissertation used neuroimaging to study how visual properties of scenes are represented in the human brain.

Following this, I moved to the University of Nottingham as a postdoctoral research associate working with Dr Ben Webb and Prof. Neil Roach, using behavioural psychophysics to investigate mechanisms underlying multisensory recalibration. I then completed a second postdoctoral position at Nottingham with Prof. Alan Johnston, applying computational approaches to study biological signals in dynamic facial behaviours.

I then returned to the University of York as a postdoctoral researcher, working again with Prof. Timothy Andrews, using traditional and naturalistic neuroimaging paradigms to study the organisation of high-level visual brain regions. I am currently working with Dr David Pitcher on a project using neuroimaging and transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate the neural representation of dynamic and social information in the lateral and ventral face processing pathways.

Career

• 2021 - Present: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of York, UK
• 2016 - 2021: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of Nottingham, UK
• 2011 - 2016: PhD Psychology, University of York, UK

Research

Overview

The neural basis of dynamic social perception of faces

Projects

My research combines behavioural, computational, and neuroimaging techniques to study the functional organisation of high-level visual networks in the human brain. I am currently using fMRI together with transcranial magnetic stimulation to investigate the function and connectivity of ventral and lateral visual pathways implicated in processing social and dynamic aspects of faces.

Publications

Selected publications

1. Watson, D. M., & Andrews, T. J. (2025). Functional Connectivity of the Scene Processing
Network at Rest Does Not Reliably Predict Human Behavior on Scene Processing Tasks. eNeuro,
12(2), ENEURO.0375-24.2024. https://doi.org/10.1523/ENEURO.0375-24.2024 
2. Watson, D. M., & Andrews, T. J. (2025). A data-driven analysis of the perceptual and neural
response to natural objects reveals organising principles of human visual cognition. Journal of
Neuroscience, 45(2), e1318242024. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1318-24.2024 
3. Noad, N. K., Watson, D. M., Andrews, T. J. (2024). Familiarity enhances functional connectivity
between visual and nonvisual regions of the brain. Cerebral Cortex, 34(7), bhae285.
https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhae285                                                                                                                                                            4. Watson, D. M., & Andrews, T. J. (2024). Mapping the functional and structural connectivity of
the scene network. Human Brain Mapping, 45(3), e26628. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.26628 

Full publications list

Google scholar: https://scholar.google.co.uk/citations?hl=en&user=BI3T-a0AAAAJ