Professor Jennifer Cook PhD

Professor Jennifer Cook

School of Psychology
Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

Contact details

Telephone
0121 414 7218
Email
j.l.cook@bham.ac.uk
Twitter
Address
School of Psychology
University 麻豆精选
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Cook’s work investigates action and social cognition in typically developed adults and those with autism spectrum conditions.

With respect to action Professor Cook and her colleagues have shown that autistic adults move with subtly different kinematics compared to typical controls (). Such atypical kinematics can impact on the perception, categorisation () and imitation () of others' actions. Professor Cook was awarded the 2014 Frith Prize by the Experimental Psychology Society in recognition of this work.

With respect to social cognition Jennifer and her colleagues have demonstrated considerable individual differences in social learning (the ability to learn new information from those around us) in the typical population and have shown that such individual differences are related to personality traits such as dominance (). Their ongoing work uses behavioural genetics and psychopharmacology to investigate the contributions of neuromodulators such as dopamine and serotonin to individual differences in social learning.

Jennifer's future work seeks to investigate the overlap between action, social cognition and neuromodulators in both in the typical population and in people with autism.

Qualifications

Wellcome Trust four-year PhD programme in Neuroscience. Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London., UK. PhD supervisor: Prof. Sarah-Jayne Blakemore

First Class BSc (Hons) Psychology. Department of Psychology, University of Bath, UK

Biography

Professor Cook completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology at the University of Bath in 2007. She then completed a Wellcome Trust-funded PhD in Neuroscience at University College London (2007-2011). This programme included a 3 year project, in Professor Sarah-Jayne Blakemore's lab, investigating "Action observation and imitation in typical individuals and adults with Autism Spectrum Conditions". Following this Professor Cook joined Professor Barbara Sahakian's group at the Department of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge (2011-2012). In Cambridge she researched novel methods of cognitive training and was also a Research Fellow of Magdalene College. Subsequently Professor Cook moved to the Donder’s Institute in The Netherlands where she began to study social learning with Professor Roshan Cools. In 2014 Professor Cook took up a lectureship at City University London where she continued to study social learning and began to extend these studies into the field of autism research. Professor Cook has been a Birmingham Fellow at the University 麻豆精选 since September 2015.

Postgraduate supervision

PhD students: Students interested in working with Professor Cook should email/call her to discuss potential funding opportunities. For further information regarding the PhD application process see the 'how to apply' section of the .

Postdoctoral researchers: Professor Cook is also looking for good postdoctoral researchers and can advise and assist with obtaining funding. Please contact her to discuss further.

Research

Research interests

Autism; Social learning; Movement kinematics; Motor control; Dopamine; Serotonin; Imitation; Biological motion processing

Other activities

09/2013: Consultant Neuroscientist for BBC 1 TV documentary on ASD, London.

03/2013: Consultant Neuroscientist for Fitzwilliam Museum exhibition, Cambridge.

2012: Consultant Neuroscientist for six-part Channel 4 TV documentary, London.

09/2012: Re-mapping autism roundtable discussion: reviewing UK funding for autism research. Centre for Research in Autism and Education, Institute of Education, London.

08/2012: Consultant Neuroscientist for BBC 2 TV documentary, Cambridge.

06/2012: Government policy roundtable discussion, Department for Business Innovation and Skills Conference Centre, London.

06/2009: The Teenage Brain: teaching the general public about the development of the brain from childhood to adulthood. Royal Society Week-long Summer Science exhibition, London.

Publications

Highlight publications

Rybicki, AJ, Sowden, SL, Schuster, B & Cook, JL 2022, '', eLife, vol. 11, e74893.

Cook, JL & Robinson, GE 2023, '', Trends in Cognitive Sciences, vol. 27, no. 3, pp. 230-232.

Schuster, BA, Sowden, S, Rybicki, AJ, Fraser, DS, Press, C, Holland, P & Cook, JL 2022, '', The Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 42, no. 21, pp. 4394-4400.

Keating, CT & Cook, J 2023, '', Scientific Reports. ,

Sowden, S, Schuster, BA, Keating, CT, Fraser, DS & Cook, JL 2021, '', Emotion, vol. 21, no. 5, pp. 1041-1061.

Recent publications

Article

Schuster, BA, Okamoto, Y, Takahashi, T, Kurihara, Y, Keating, CT, Cook, JL, Kosaka, H, Ide, M, Naruse, H, Kraaijkamp, C & Osu, R 2025, '', Molecular Autism, vol. 16, no. 1, 29.

Traniello, IM, Avalos, A, Gachomba, MJM, Gernat, T, Chen, Z, Cash-Ahmed, AC, Hamilton, AR, Cook, JL & Robinson, GE 2025, '', PLoS Biology, vol. 23, no. 9, e3003367.

Keating, CT, Hickman, L, Geelhand, P, Takahashi, T, Leung, J, Monk, R, Schuster, B, Rybicki, A, Girolamo, TM, Clin, E, Papastamou, F, Belenger, M, Eigsti, I-M, Cook, JL, Kosaka, H, Osu, R, Okamoto, Y, Sowden-Carvalho, S & Dey, A (ed.) 2024, '', PLOS One, vol. 19, no. 3, e0299824.

Schuster, B, Sowden-Carvalho, S, Rybicki, A, Fraser, DS, Press, C, Hickman, L, Holland, P & Cook, JL 2024, '', PLoS Biology, vol. 22, no. 6, e3002652.

Hickman, LJ, Sowden-Carvalho, SL, Fraser, DS, Schuster, BA, Rybicki, AJ, Galea, JM & Cook, JL 2024, '', Behavioural Brain Research, vol. 474, 115213.

van Schie, C, Cook, JL, Elzinga, B & Ly, V 2023, '', Royal Society Open Science, vol. 10, no. 5, 230027.

Keating, CT, Ichijo, E & Cook, JL 2023, '', Scientific Reports, vol. 13, no. 1, 11875.

Keating, C & Cook, J 2023, '', Cognitive Psychology Bulletin, no. 8, pp. 47-50.

Keating, CT, Fraser, DS, Sowden, S & Cook, JL 2022, '', Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, vol. 52, no. 4, pp. 1855-1871.

Keating, C & Cook, J 2022, '', Cognitive Psychology Bulletin, no. 7, pp. 61-63. <>

Keating, CT, Sowden, S & Cook, JL 2021, '', Autism Research.

Rostami Kandroodi, M, Cook, JL, Swart, JC, Frob枚se, MI, Geurts, DEM, Vahabie, A-H, Nili Ahmadabadi, M, Cools, R & den Ouden, HEM 2021, '', Psychopharmacology, vol. 238, no. 12, pp. 3569-3584.

Keating, CT, Hickman, L, Geelhand, P, Takahashi, T, Leung, J, Schuster, B, Rybicki, A, Girolamo, TM, Clin, E, Papastamou, F, Belenger, M, Eigsti, I-M, Cook, JL, Kosaka, H, Osu, R, Okamoto, Y & Sowden, S 2021, '', PLoS ONE, vol. 16, no. 12, e0261774.

Review article

Fraser, DS, Di Luca, M & Cook, JL 2025, '', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 243, no. 5, 107.

Keating, CT & Cook, JL 2021, '', The Psychiatric clinics of North America, vol. 44, no. 1, pp. 125-139.