Dr Magda Chechlacz PhD

Dr Magda Chechlacz

School of Psychology
Assistant Professor in Cognition and Ageing

Contact details

Address
School of Psychology
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Dr Chechlacz is broadly interested in understanding how variability in the neurochemical, structural and functional organisation of the brain affect cognitive functions and relates to individual differences in human behaviour and in susceptibility to cognitive ageing and mental health problems. Her work combines cognitive assessment of attentional functions with spherical deconvolution tractography, resting state connectivity analysis, brain stimulation and genetics.

ORCID:  

Qualifications

  • MSc (Biology)
  • PhD (Biology)
  • PhD (Psychology)

Biography

Dr Chechlacz initially trained and carried out a doctorate in cellular and molecular biology (2002). After working as a biologist (Larry L. Hillblom Foundation Fellowship at the University of California, San Diego) she decided on a career change to a more human-oriented science and neuroimaging. In order to gain formal training in cognitive neuroscience and neuroimaging, she completed a second doctorate in psychology at the University 麻豆精选 under the supervision of Glyn Humphreys (2012). From 2013 to 2016, she held a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship and EPA Cephalosporin Junior Research Fellowship, Linacre College at the University of Oxford. In 2016 Dr Chechlacz returned to the School of Psychology, University 麻豆精选 as a Bridge Fellow.

Postgraduate supervision

Potential doctoral as well as postdoctoral researchers interested in working with Dr Chechlacz should email her to discuss potential projects and funding opportunities. Applicants interested in areas as listed below are especially welcome:

  • visual attention
  • neuroimaging genetics
  • age-related structural and functional changes in neural networks
  • individual differences
  • diffusion imaging

Research

Dr Chechlacz’s research is broadly concerned with understanding how variability in the neurochemical, structural and functional organisation of the brain affect cognitive performance, in particularly attentional functions, as well as whether and how these individual differences predict the susceptibility to neurological disorders and the way we age. Her prior research programme funded by the British Academy examined whether variability in the organisation of the visual attention networks is associated with individual differences in attentional functions, whether structural lateralization underlies functional lateralization in the organisation of attention and whether behavioural asymmetries are causally linked to the structural asymmetries in attention networks. Her current work aims to test for associations between common genetic variants in neurotransmitter signalling and resting state connectivity within attention networks as well as examine the links between those functional genetic polymorphisms and individual differences in age-related cognitive decline in attention.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Mathur, P, Thomas, H, Cooper, A, Chechlacz, M, Stathi, A, Goodyear, V, Miller, C, Krauss, T, Ives, N, Magill, L, Kinghorn, P, Wilson, D & Chiou, S-Y 2025, '', PLOS One, vol. 20, no. 3, e0314829.

Sui, J, Rotshtein, P, Lu, Z & Chechlacz, M 2024, '', Journal of Clinical Medicine, vol. 13, no. 14, 4170.

Brosnan, MB, Shalev, N, Ramduny, J, Sotiropoulos, SN & Chechlacz, M 2022, '', Brain Communications, vol. 4, no. 2, fcac080.

Ramduny, J, Bastiani, M, Huedepohl, R, Sotiropoulos, SN & Chechlacz, M 2022, '', Neurobiology of Aging, vol. 114, pp. 1-14.

Fern谩ndez, PJ, Vivas, AB, Chechlacz, M & Fuentes, LJ 2022, '', Aging brain, vol. 2, 100043.

Farrow, E, Chiocchetti, AG, Rogers, J, Pauli, R, Raschle, NM, Gonzalez-Madruga, K, Smaragdi, A, Martinelli, A, Kohls, G, Stadler, C, Konrad, K, Fairchild, G, Freitag, CM, Chechlacz, M & De Brito, S 2021, '', Translational Psychiatry, vol. 11, no. 1, 492 .

Shalev, N, Brosnan, MB & Chechlacz, M 2020, '', Cerebral Cortex Communications, vol. 1, no. 1, tgaa049.

Shalev, N, Vangkilde, S, Neville, MJ, Tunbridge, EM, Nobre, AC & Chechlacz, M 2019, '', Neuroscience, vol. 412, pp. 175-189.

Nyffeler, T, Vanbellingen, T, Kaufmann, BC, Pflugshaupt, T, Bauer, D, Frey, J, Chechlacz, M, Bohlhalter, S, M眉ri, RM, Nef, T & Cazzoli, D 2019, '', Brain, vol. 142, no. 4, pp. 992-1008.

Shalev, N, De Wandel, L, Dockree, P, Demeyere, N & Chechlacz, M 2018, '', Cortex, pp. 131-147.

Chechlacz, M, Hansen, PC, Geng, JJ & Cazzoli, D 2018, '', Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, vol. 30, no. 6, pp. 851-866.

Chapter (peer-reviewed)

Chechlacz, M 2018, . in The Parietal Lobe. Handbook of Clinical Neurology, vol. 151, Elsevier, pp. 249-267.

Comment/debate

Farrow, E, Chiocchetti, AG, Rogers, JC, Pauli, R, Raschle, NM, Gonzalez-Madruga, K, Smaragdi, A, Martinelli, A, Kohls, G, Stadler, C, Konrad, K, Fairchild, G, Freitag, CM, Chechlacz, M & De Brito, SA 2021, '', Translational Psychiatry, vol. 11, no. 1, 553.

Editorial

Scheel, AM, Allen, C, Chechlacz, M, Deserno, MK, Gillebert, CR & Holmes, NP 2025, '', Cortex, vol. 185, pp. 336-339.

Chechlacz, M, Rotshtein, P & Hansen, PC 2018, '', Neuropsychologia.