Ian Kirk

Phone: +64 9 373 7599 ext 88524
Phone laboratory: +64 9 373 7599 ext 88421
Email: i.kirk@auckland.ac.nz
Room: HSB 651

Ian obtained his PhD degree in Psychology and Neuroscience from University of Otago. Subsequent to his PhD he held post-doctoral fellowships at the Centre for Behavioural Neuroscience at the University of Calgary in Canada, and at the Centre for Complex Systems and Brain Sciences at Florida Atlantic in the USA. He has been a staff member in Psychology at the University of Auckland since 2000, is co-director of the Cognitive Neuroimaging, Neuroplasticity and Neurodevelopment laboratory, is co-director of the Research Centre for Cognitive Neuroscience, and is a PI and member of the advisory group for the Centre for Brain Research.

Ian is interested in the neural systems involved in memory and attentional processes. He also has an interest in the genetic mechanisms that modulate development of, and activity in, these systems. He has additional interests in cerebral asymmetries, music perception and production, and in the plastic neural processes involved in memory. He employs functional (EEG and fMRI) and structural imaging (DTI) to investigate the temporal and spatial dynamics of cognitive processes and the physical neural substrates underpinning them. Ian is also interested in atypical processing in a number of disorders (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease, depression, schizophrenia, Asperger’s Syndrome, and Parkinson’s disease). Ian’s research has been supported by HRC, Marsden, NIH (USA), Neurological Foundation, and AMRF.

• Kirk, I.J., Mackay, J.C. The role of theta-range oscillations in synchronising and integrating activity in distributed mnemonic networks. Cortex 39, 993-1008 (2003).
• Kirk IJ. Frequency modulation of hippocampal theta by the supramammillary nucleus, and other hypothalamo-hippocampal interactions: Mechanisms and functional implications. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 22: 291-302 (1998).
• Teyler, T.J., Hamm, J.P., Clapp, W.C., Johnson, B.W., Corballis, M.C., Kirk, I.J. Long-term potentiation of human visual evoked responses. Eur J. Neuroscience 21, 2045-2050 (2005).
• O’Connor, K., Hamm, J.P., Kirk, I.J. The Neurophysiological Correlates of Emotional Processing in Asperger’s Syndrome. Brain and Cognition 59, 82-95 (2005). 
• Barnett, K.J., Corballis, M.C., Kirk, I.J. Symmetry of callosal information transfer in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research. 74,171-8 (2005).

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