Sancho Moro
sanchomoro@gmail.com
+34 661008377
Center of Brain and Cognition,Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
http://cbc.upf.edu/
Current Position:
Research Fellow at the Multisensory Research Group, within the Center of Brain and
Cognition,Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Spain
Department of Information Technology, Universitat Pompeu Fabra. Roc Boronat 138, 08018
Barcelona, Spain
Postal address:
Research expertise: cognitive and visual neuroscience, behavioural and neuroimaging methods (fMRI, EEG, eyetracking), experimental design, statistical analysis, image processing (matlab).
Research interests: perception, visual attention, multi-sensory interactions, visual & cognitive deficits in clinical
populations.
EDUCATION
PhD in Optics & Visual Neuroscience. City University, London UK. 2000-2003
Title: A study of pupil response components in human vision. http://openaccess.city.ac.uk/3084/
Supervisors: J. Barbur (City, London) & L. Weiskrantz (Oxford)
Collaborations: Bascom Palmer Eye Institute (Miami, USA), Tubingen Eye Hospital (Germany).
MSc/BSc in Fundamental Physics University of Oviedo (Spain). 1997. (1st class)
Thesis title: 'Statistical analysis in nuclear physics: energy measurements in particle detectors'
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE
Research Fellow (2011-): ‘Effects of attention on multisensory perception’. Multi-sensory Research Group
lead by Salvador Soto. Funding: ERC grant (EU), Consolider (MICINN, Spain). Duties: Programming,
experimental testing and data analysis of behavioural performance and Eye-Tracking data to investigate the
effect of visual attention on both visual and auditory processing.
Research Fellowship Spanish Ministry of Science (2007- 2011): ‘Local and global feature processing in
the human visual cortex’ funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science. Department of Psychology, University
of Barcelona, Spain. Group lead by Joan Lopez-Moliner & Hans Supèr. Duties: fMRI and EEG experimental
design and analyses
Postdoctoral position NWO (2004-2006): Royal Academy of Art & Sciences, The Netherlands Visual
Cognition Lab (heads: Hans Super & Pieter Roelfsema). Project: Neural correlates of attention and visual
search. Major duties: experimental design and instrumentation, computer programming, electrophysiological
recordings, anatomical MRI, data analysis, signal processing and mathematical modelling.
Research Assistant (1999) and PhD (2000-2003) Applied Vision Research Centre (AVRC), City
University, London, UK. http://www.city.ac.uk/avrc Projects funded by the Wellcome Trust and Medical
Research Council, UK. Investigation of new techniques for the early detection of visual anomalies. Major
duties: design and coordination of experiments with human volunteers and neurological patients, computer
programming, statistical data analysis.
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
-Attention & Perception course as part of the BSc degree in the Psychology Dept. (U. Barcelona, Spain)
http://www.ub.edu/psicologia/
-Master of Neurosciences (Univ Barcelona, Spain).
-Master of Cognitive Science & Language: Attention & Performance. (Multi-disciplinary program involving
several Universities in the area of Barcelona)
-Experimental and statistical methods for research (including practicals with Matlab).
-“Advance seminars in neuroscience” techniques and analysis methods of multi-cell neuronal recordings. I
also created and maintain the Wiki website for this course http://neuroseminars.pbwiki.com/.
-Laboratory instructor to undergraduate students in a variety of experiments covering optics, photometry,
visual perception and psychophysics (1st and 2nd year university students at City University, London, UK,
2000-2003).
-Supervision of research projects carried by undergraduates in their final year and research guidance to
Master & PhD students (in UK, Netherlands & Spain, 2000-present).
COMPUTER & TECHNICAL SKILLS
Online Eye-tracking software for psychological experiments www.okazolab.com in collaboration with
Ilia Korjoukov, Academy of Sciences, Netherlands. Design, development and testing for real-time recording
and processing of eye-tracking and EEG signals during experiments.
Programming in MATLAB, C++ & C#: Programming experiments, data analysis and signal processing.
Statistical methods.
Image & video processing with matlab: Fourier phase degradation of images, image statistics, sound
generation.
Software for fMRI and EEG: FSL, SPM, Presentation, Brain Vision Analizer, EEGlab.
Other software: video editing software (Adobe Premiere). CorelDraw, PhotoShop, SPSS, web & graphic
design.
Systems: Windows, Linux.
AWARDS & GRANTS
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Research Fellowship, Spanish Ministry of Science (PI: Sancho Moro, 96000EUR).
Welsh Institute for Cognitive Neuroscience (Investigators: Guillaume Thierry & Sancho Moro, 20000GBP).
Research Fellowship, Royal Academy of Arts & Sciences, The Netherlands 2004-2006.
Support and travel grants from various institutions including the City of London, Brain (Publishing group)
and Institute of Physics.
Professional Memberships
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Institute of Physics, UK.
NY Academy of Sciences.
Society for Neuroscience
LANGUAGES
SPANISH
ENGLISH
GERMAN
Native speaker
Fluent, written and spoken
Basic
FRENCH
PORTUGUESE
ITALIAN
Fluent
Intermediate
Intermediate
PUBLICATIONS
Forthcoming…
Sancho Moro, Daria Kvasova, Alexis Perez-Bellido, Salvador Soto-Faraco (In preparation) Attention influences audio-visual
sensory perception.
Sancho Moro, Daria Kvasova, Salvador Soto-Faraco (In preparation) Uncertainty in luminance contrast limits soundinduced sensory enhancement in vision.
Sancho Moro, H. Steven Scholte, V.A.F. Lamme, Hans Supèr (Submitted). The role of human cortical visual areas in
detecting visual saliency.
Sancho Moro, W. Bi, and J. L. Barbur (Submitted) The pupil response to sustained and transient stimulation.
Benjamin Dering, Clara D. Martin, Sancho Moro, and Guillaume Thierry. Face-sensitive processes one hundred
milliseconds after picture onset. Frontiers Human Neuroscience 2011 5:93.
http://www.frontiersin.org/Human_Neuroscience/10.3389/fnhum.2011.00093/full
Sancho Moro, Paul Khayat, Michiel Tolboom, Pieter Roelfsema. Neuronal activity in the visual cortex reveals the temporal
order of cognitive operations. Journal of Neuroscience 2010 Dec 1;30(48):16293-303
http://www.jneurosci.org/cgi/content/short/30/48/16293
S. Moro, M. L. Rodriguez-Carmona, E. C. Frost, G. T. Plant, and J. L. Barbur (2007) A comparison of visual and pupil
response deficits in multiple sclerosis and optic neuritis. Ophthalmic & Physiological Optics 27(5):451-60.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17718884
Barbur, J. L., Moro, S., Harlow, J. A., Lam, B. L., and Liu, M. (2004) Comparison of pupil responses to luminance and
colour in severe optic neuritis. Clinical Neurophysiology 115, 2650-2658 [download pdf]
Wilhelm BJ, Wilhelm H, Moro S, Barbur JL. (2002). Pupil response components: studies in patients with Parinaud's
syndrome. Brain 125(Pt 10):2296-307 [download pdf]
J. L. Barbur, A. J. Harlow, S. Moro, and I. S. Levy (2000) Perimetric study of relative afferent pupil defects. Non-invasive
Assessment of the Visual System (Technical Digest Series). Washington DC. Optical Society of America. 1:34-37.
J.L. Barbur, S. Moro (2000) Component pupil perimetry in subjects with acute optic neuritis. Ophthalmic Research 32,
146.
CONFERENCES, PRESENTATIONS & ABSTRACTS
The role of attention in multisensory perception. Berlin Brain & Mind School 2012. [invited Talk, Haynes Group].
Evaluating visual and pupillomotor deficits in neurological disorders. Eye Institute, Harvard University 2011 [Talk].
The role of human cortical visual areas in detecting visual saliency. Human Brain Mapping Conference. Barcelona 2010.
Neuronal activity in the visual cortex reveals the temporal order of cognitive operations. Bangor, UK 2008. Invited Talk.
Visual and pupil response deficits during optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis. CIP, Madrid 2007 [Talk].
Neural correlates of attention and visual search. Brain Institute, Amsterdam 2006 [Talk].
Subtask sequencing in the primary visual cortex. (Society for Neuroscience, Washington DC 2005). S.Moro, P. Khayat,
M.Tolboom, P. Roelfsema. [Poster]
A comparison of visual and pupil response deficits in multiple sclerosis and optic neuritis. (EVER, Alicante 2002). S Moro, J.
L. Barbur. [Talk]
Light reflex component mechanisms revealed in studies of the pupil response. Perception Vol.30, 2001. (ECVP, Turkey 2001).
S Moro, J. A. Harlow , J. L. Barbur. [Poster]
Chromatic and Achromatic sensitivity loss in demyelinating optic neuritis and multiple sclerosis. 23rd pupil colloquium
Sep2002, California, USA. [Talk]
Imaging the pupil. Basic mechanisms and clinical applications. Institute of Physics. ‘Physics and the Brain’. Summer School in
Brain Imaging and Neuroscience, July 2001, Oxford, UK. [Talk]
Diseases of the eye and the brain. Special reception in the House of Parliament for Britain's top young scientists. Science
Week, March 2001. [Poster]
Pupil responses to colour and light flux changes in normal subjects and in patients with acute optic neuritis. Investigative
Ophthalmology & Visual Science 41: S35, 2000. (ARVO, Florida 2000). [Poster]
REFERENCES
Please feel free to contact any of my former supervisors or collaborators listed here for a reference.
Prof Salvador Soto-Faraco (ICREA Professor, UPF, Spain)
salvador.soto@icrea.cat
Prof Luca Bonatti (Professor, UPF, Spain)
lucabonatti@mac.com
COLLABORATIONS
Ilia Korjoukov (CEO & Chief Software Programmer) i.korjoukov@okazolab.com
Colaboration on EventIDE software platform for stimulus display and control, eye-tracking, pupil and
EEG real-time monitoring. www.okazolab.com
Dr Manuela Ruzzoli (UPF, Spain)
Project: Effect of transcraneal magnetic stimulation (TMS) on the ventriloquist illusion
manuela.ruzzoli@gmail.com
Guillaume Thierry (Professor), g.thierry@bangor.ac.uk
Dept Psychology, University of Bangor, UK.
Project: Comparison of brain activity during categorization and identification of human faces with EEG
& fmri http://www.bilingualism.bangor.ac.uk/people/GThierry.php.en
John Barbur (PhD supervisor, Head of Research Centre, Professor) johnb@city.ac.uk
Welcome Laboratory for Visual Science, City University, London, UK
Project: Pupil responses to isoluminant colours and gratings: implications for clinical research.
http://www.city.ac.uk/avrc/members/j.l.barbur.html
Joan Lopez-Moliner (Professor, Department of Psychology, Univ Barcelona, Spain)
j.lopezmoliner@gmail.com