Professor Michael Morgan

Professor of Neuroscience

School of Health and Psychological SciencesDepartment of Optometry and Visual Sciences

Contact details

Address

Professor Michael Morgan C265, Tait Building
City, University of London
Northampton Square
London EC1V 0HB
United Kingdom

About
Research
Publications

About

Overview

Professor Morgan is a Neuroscientist working on the visual system, who joined City University in 2000. He worked previously at the Universities of Cambridge, Durham, Edinburgh and UCL.

Professor Morgan obtained his first degree and PhD from the University of Cambridge studying Natural Sciences, specialising in Experimental Psychology. After 1 year as Assistant Professor at McGill University he became an Assistant in Research and subsequently a Demonstrator at the University of Cambridge (Experimental Psychology Department). He subsequently became Head of the Department of Psychology at Durham before moving to a Research Chair at UCL (Psychology). After a period as a Darwin Professorial Fellow in the Centre for Neuroscience at Edinburgh, he returned to UCL to take a joint position between Anatomy and The institute of Ophthalmology, before finally moving to Applied Vision Research Centre at City, University of London. As these affiliations indicate, his research interest is in behavioural neuroscience, with particular application to Vision.

Qualifications

PhD, MA and ScD.

Employment

Professor of Neuroscience, City, University London, 2000 – present

Fellowships

Elected Fellow, The Royal Society, 2005 – present

Memberships of professional organisations

Experimental Psychology Society
British Psychological Society

Languages

French and German.

Research

Research overview

Prof Morgan's work covers diverse areas of Vsual Processing such as motion, acuity, colour, 3-D representation and spatial vision generally.

Research areas

- Experimental Psychology Society
- Psychophysics
- Decision Theory
- Functional Brian Imaging

Grants

Current support is from the EPSRC Mechanisms of Selective Attention and Signal Detection in Human Vision Wellcome Trust:: Calibration and recalibration of Visual Space

Current and recently completed grants / Activities

Current support is from the EPSRC Mechanisms of Selective Attention and Signal Detection in Human Vision Wellcome Trust: Calibration and recalibration of Visual Space Max-Planck Society (Senior Fellow at Institute for Neurological Research, Cologne)

Research centres

- Applied Vision Research Centre

Principal collaborators

Internal

- J.A. Solomon (optometry)
- S.Grant (optometry)

External

- C. Chubb (UCI)
- S. Dakin (Institute of Ophthalmology)

Research students

Niia Nikolova

Thesis title: Adaptationto transparent motion

Publications

Publications by category

Chapter

Melmoth, D.R., Tibber, M.S. and Morgan, M.J. (2010). Hermann Lotze’s Theory of ‘Local Sign’: evidence from pointing responses in an illusory figure. Perception, Action, and Consciousness (pp. 95–104). Oxford University Press.

Conference papers and proceedings (18)

Tomassini, A., Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2009). Re-calibration of subjective reference frame in the tilt illusion.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2008). Context-induced acuity loss for tilt: If it is not
crowding, what is it? VSS Annual Meeting Naples, Florida.
Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2007). Testing a multi-resolution clock model for temporal duration discrimination.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2006). Contrast discrimination: Second responses unambiguously reveal the relationship between the mean and variance of visual signals.
Chubb, C., Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2006). Evidence for plaid-grabbers.
Morgan, M.J., Giora, E. and Solomon, J.A. (2006). Parallel processing is much harder for temporal duration than for spatial length.
Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2005). Attentional capacity limit for visual search causes
spatial neglect in normal observers.
Gheri, C., Solomon, J.A., Felisberti, F. and Morgan, M.J. (2004). 'Pop-out' does not prevent 'crowding'.
Solomon, J.A., Felisberti, F. and Morgan, M.J. (2004). Crowding and the tilt illusion: Toward a unified account.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2003). Flanked targets: easier to see, harder to identify.
Morgan, M.J., McEwan, W. and Solomon, J.A. (2003). Artificial scotomata: 'filling in' and/or masking?
John, A., Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2003). Monocular texture segregation and proto-rivalry.
Felisberti, F.M., Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2003). Distortions of perceived orientation in crowded arrays.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2002). It takes time to bind: visual features are poorly localised in brief exposures.
Barbur, J.L., Rodriguez-Carmona, M.L. and Morgan, M.J. (2002). "Double-blindsight" in human vision.
Sloper, J.J., Davis, A.R., Neveu, M.M., Brammer, M., Williams, S.C.R., Fitzke, F.W. … Hogg, C.R. (2002). Different functional MR] responses of the visual cortex to magnocellular and parvocellular biased visual stimuli.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2001). Odd-men-out are poorly localized in brief displays.
MORGAN, M.J. and FAHLE, M. (1992). EFFECTS OF DENSITY UPON UPPER THRESHOLDS FOR MOTION DISPLACEMENT EXPLAINED BY A SPATIAL-FILTERING MODEL.

Journal articles (83)

Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2020). A visual search asymmetry for relative novelty in the visual field based on sensory adaptation. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 82(3), pp. 938–943. doi:10.3758/s13414-019-01943-w.
Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2019). Attention and the motion aftereffect. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 72(12), pp. 2848–2864. doi:10.1177/1747021819864552.
Lisi, M., Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2019). Gain control of saccadic eye movements is probabilistic. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 116(32), pp. 16137–16142. doi:10.1073/pnas.1901963116.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2018). Precues’ elevation of sensitivity is not only preattentive, but largely monocular. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 80(7), pp. 1705–1717. doi:10.3758/s13414-018-1564-1.
Manning, C., Morgan, M.J., Allen, C.T.W. and Pellicano, E. (2017). Susceptibility to Ebbinghaus and Müller-Lyer illusions in autistic children: a comparison of three different methods. Molecular Autism, 8(1). doi:10.1186/s13229-017-0127-y.
Morgan, M.J. (2017). Labeled lines for image blur and contrast. Journal of Vision, 17(6), pp. 16–16. doi:10.1167/17.6.16.
Morgan, M.J. and Dillenburger, B. (2016). Geometrical Features Underlying the Perception of Colinearity. Vision Research.
Morgan, M.J., Schreiber, K. and Solomon, J.A. (2016). Low-level mediation of directionally specific motion after-effects: motion perception is not necessary. Attention, Perception and Psychophysics. doi:10.3758/s13414-016-1160-1.
Raphael, S. and Morgan, M.J. (2016). The computation of relative numerosity, size and density. Vision Research, 124, pp. 15–23. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2014.12.022.
Melmoth, D., Grant, S., Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2015). Rapid eye movements to a virtual target are biased by illusory context in the Poggendorff figure. Experimental Brain Research, 233(7), pp. 1993–2000. doi:10.1007/s00221-015-4263-3.
Morgan, M., Grant, S., Melmoth, D. and Solomon, J.A. (2015). Tilted frames of reference have similar effects on the perception of gravitational vertical and the planning of vertical saccadic eye movements. Experimental Brain Research, 233(7), pp. 2115–2125. doi:10.1007/s00221-015-4282-0.
Tomassini, A., Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2014). Which Way Is Down? Positional Distortion in the Tilt Illusion. PLoS ONE, 9(10). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0110729.
Morgan, M.J., Raphael, S., Tibber, M.S. and Dakin, S.C. (2014). A texture-processing model of the ‘visual sense of number’. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 281(1790), pp. 20141137–20141137. doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.1137.
Morgan, M.J. (2014). A bias-free measure of retinotopic tilt adaptation. JOURNAL OF VISION, 14(1). doi:10.1167/14.1.7.
Morgan, M.J., Melmoth, D. and Solomon, J.A. (2013). Linking hypotheses underlying Class A and Class B methods. Vis Neurosci, 30(5-6), pp. 197–206. doi:10.1017/S095252381300045X.
Morgan, M.J., Mareschal, I., Chubb, C. and Solomon, J.A. (2012). Perceived pattern regularity computed as a summary statistic: implications for camouflage. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 279(1739), pp. 2754–2760. doi:10.1098/rspb.2011.2645.
Morgan, M., Dillenburger, B., Raphael, S. and Solomon, J.A. (2012). Observers can voluntarily shift their psychometric functions without losing sensitivity. Attention, Perception, and Psychophysics, 74(1), pp. 185–193. doi:10.3758/s13414-011-0222-7.
Dakin, S.C., Tibber, M.S., Greenwood, J.A., Kingdom, F.A.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2011). A common visual metric for approximate number and density. PROCEEDINGS OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA, 108(49), pp. 19552–19557. doi:10.1073/pnas.1113195108.
Solomon, J.A., Morgan, M. and Chubb, C. (2011). Efficiencies for the statistics of size discrimination. Journal of vision, 11(12), p. 13.
Morgan, M.J., Chubb, C. and Solomon, J.A. (2011). Evidence for a subtractive component in motion adaptation. VISION RESEARCH, 51(21-22), pp. 2312–2316. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2011.09.002.
Solomon, J.A., Morgan, M. and Chubb, C. (2011). Efficiencies for the statistics of size discrimination. Journal of Vision, 11(12), pp. 13–13. doi:10.1167/11.12.13.
Morgan, M.J. (2011). Wohlgemuth was right: Distracting attention from the adapting stimulus does not decrease the motion after-effect. VISION RESEARCH, 51(20), pp. 2169–2175. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2011.07.018.
Morgan, M.J. (2011). Features and the 'primal sketch'. VISION RESEARCH, 51(7), pp. 738–753. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2010.08.002.
Mareschal, I., Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2010). Attentional modulation of crowding. Vision Res, 50(8), pp. 805–809. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2010.01.022.
Tibber, M., Saygin, A.P., Grant, S., Melmoth, D., Rees, G. and Morgan, M. (2010). The Neural Correlates of Visuospatial Perceptual and Oculomotor Extrapolation. PLoS ONE, 5(3). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0009664.
Fahle, M., Morgan, M., Diehl, V. and Spang, K. (2010). An fMRI correlate of perceived 3-dimensional structure from purely temporal information. Journal of Vision, 2(7), pp. 115–115. doi:10.1167/2.7.115.
Spang, K., Brandt, S., Morgan, M., Diehl, V., Terwey, B. and Fahle, M. (2010). Areas involved in figure-ground segregation based on luminance, colour, motion, and stereoscopic depth visualized with fMRI. Journal of Vision, 2(7), pp. 471–471. doi:10.1167/2.7.471.
Tomassini, A., Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2010). Orientation uncertainty reduces perceived obliquity. VISION RESEARCH, 50(5), pp. 541–547. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2009.12.005.
Mareschal, I., Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2010). Cortical distance determines whether flankers cause crowding or the tilt illusion. Journal of vision, 10(8), pp. 13–13.
Melmoth, D.R., Tibber, M.S., Grant, S. and Morgan, M.J. (2009). The Poggendorff illusion affects manual pointing as well as perceptual judgements. Neuropsychologia, 47(14), pp. 3217–3224. doi:10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2009.07.024.
Nam, J.-.H., Solomon, J.A., Morgan, M.J., Wright, C.E. and Chubb, C. (2009). Coherent plaids are preattentively more than the sum of their parts. ATTENTION PERCEPTION & PSYCHOPHYSICS, 71(7), pp. 1469–1477. doi:10.3758/APP.71.7.1469.
Melmoth, D.R., Finlay, A.L., Morgan, M.J. and Grant, S. (2009). Grasping deficits and adaptations in adults with stereo vision losses. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 50(8), pp. 3711–3720. doi:10.1167/iovs.08-3229.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2009). Strong tilt illusions always reduce orientation acuity. Vision Res, 49(8), pp. 819–824. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2009.02.017.
Tibber, M.S., Anderson, E.J., Melmoth, D.R., Rees, G. and Morgan, M.J. (2009). Common cortical loci are activated during visuospatial interpolation and orientation discrimination judgements. PLoS ONE, 4(2). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004585.
Tibber, M.S., Anderson, E.J., Melmoth, D.R., Rees, G. and Morgan, M.J. (2009). Common cortical loci are activated during visuospatial interpolation and orientation discrimination judgements. PLoS One, 4(2). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0004585.
Tibber, M.S., Grant, S. and Morgan, M.J. (2009). Oculomotor responses and visuospatial perceptual judgments compete for common limited resources. JOURNAL OF VISION, 9(12). doi:10.1167/9.12.21.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2009). Strong tilt illusions always reduce orientation acuity. Vision Research, 49, pp. 819–824.
Morgan, M.J. (2009). The Spread of Happiness in Social Networks: commentary. BMJ: British Medical Journal.
Mareschal, I., Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2008). Contextual effects on decision templates for parafoveal orientation identification. Vision Res, 48(27), pp. 2689–2695. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2008.08.020.
Davis, A.R., Sloper, J.J., Neveu, M.M., Hogg, C.R., Morgan, M.J. and Holder, G.E. (2008). Differential changes in color and motion-onset visual evoked potentials from both eyes in early- and late-onset strabismic amblyopia. INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE, 49(10), pp. 4418–4426. doi:10.1167/iovs.07-1437.
Morgan, M., Chubb, C. and Solomon, J.A. (2008). A 'dipper' function for texture discrimination based on orientation variance. Journal of Vision, 8(11), pp. 9–9. doi:10.1167/8.11.9.
Gheri, C., Chopping, S. and Morgan, M.J. (2008). Synaesthetic colours do not camouflage form in visual search. PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY B-BIOLOGICAL SCIENCES, 275(1636), pp. 841–846. doi:10.1098/rspb.2007.1457.
Tibber, M.S., Melmoth, D.R. and Morgan, M.J. (2008). Biases and sensitivities in the Poggendorff effect when driven by subjective contours. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 49(1), pp. 474–478. doi:10.1167/iovs.07-0921.
Morgan, M.J., Giora, E. and Solomon, J.A. (2008). A single "stopwatch" for duration estimation, A single "ruler" for size. JOURNAL OF VISION, 8(2). doi:10.1167/8.2.14.
Spang, K. and Morgan, M.J. (2008). Cortical correlates of stereoscopic depth produced by temporal delay. Journal of Vision, 8(9), pp. 1–12.
Morgan, M.J., Chubb, C. and Solomon, J. (2008). A 'dipper' function for texture discrimination based on orientation variance. Journal of Vision, 8(11), pp. 1–8. doi:10.1167/8.11.9.
Grant, S., Melmoth, D.R., Morgan, M.J. and Finlay, A.L. (2007). Prehension deficits in amblyopia. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci, 48(3), pp. 1139–1148. doi:10.1167/iovs.06-0976.
Morgan, M.J., McEwan, W. and Solomon, J. (2007). The Lingering Effects of an Artificial Blind Spot. PLOS ONE, 2(2). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0000256.
Melmoth, D.R. and Morgan, M.J. (2007). A dissociation between motor and perceptual performance in the Poggendorff illusion. PERCEPTION, 36, pp. 224–224.
Melmoth, D.R., Tibber, M.S. and Morgan, M.J. (2007). A motor-specifle bias with veridical perception. PERCEPTION, 36(9), pp. 1408–1408.
Gheri, C., Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2007). The relationship between search efficiency and crowding. Perception, 36(12), pp. 1779–1787. doi:10.1068/p5595.
Davis, A.R., Sloper, J.J., Neveu, M.M., Hogg, C.R., Morgan, M.J. and Holder, G.E. (2006). Differential changes of magnocellular and parvocellular visual function in early- and late-onset strabismic amblyopia. INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE, 47(11), pp. 4836–4841. doi:10.1167/iovs.06-0382.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2006). Stochastic re-calibration: contextual effects on perceived tilt. Proc Biol Sci, 273(1601), pp. 2681–2686. doi:10.1098/rspb.2006.3634.
Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. (2006). Attentional capacity limit for visual search causes spatial neglect in normal observers. VISION RESEARCH, 46(12), pp. 1868–1875. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2005.11.026.
Solomon, J.A., John, A. and Morgan, M.J. (2006). Monocular texture segmentation and proto-rivalry. Vision Res, 46(8-9), pp. 1488–1492. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2005.07.002.
Morgan, M.J. (2006). What is compared in 2AFC? PERCEPTION, 35, pp. 68–68.
Morgan, M.J. (2006). The inefficiency of visual search for a target differing in duration is not explained by memory loss. PERCEPTION, 35, pp. 102–103.
Morgan, M.J. (2006). A possible analogue of spatial crowding in time. PERCEPTION, 35, pp. 175–175.
Morgan, M.J. (2005). The visual computation of 2-D area by human observers. Vision Res, 45(19), pp. 2564–2570. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2005.04.004.
Morgan, M.J. (2005). The oxford companion to the mind, 2nd edition. TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES, 9(4), pp. 169–170. doi:10.1016/j.tics.2005.02.004.
Felisberti, F.M., Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2005). The role of target salience in crowding. PERCEPTION, 34(7), pp. 823–833. doi:10.1068/p5206.
Melmoth, D.R., Finlay, A.L., Morgan, M.J. and Grant, S. (2005). Deficits in the 'on-line' control of reaching and grasping movements in stereodeficient adults. SPATIAL VISION, 18(4), pp. 500–501.
Solomon, J.A., Felisberti, F.M. and Morgan, M.J. (2004). Crowding and the tilt illusion: Toward a unified account. JOURNAL OF VISION, 4(6), pp. 500–508. doi:10.1167/4.6.9.
Davis, A.R., Sloper, J.J., Neveu, M.M., Hogg, C.R., Morgan, M.J. and Holder, G.E. (2003). Electrophysiological and psychophysical differences between early- and late-onset strabismic amblyopia. Investigative Ophthalmology & Visual Science, 44(2), pp. 610–617. doi:10.1167/iovs.02-0240.
Morgan, M.J. (2002). Detecting the wrong signals? Trends Cogn Sci, 6(10), pp. 443–445. doi:10.1016/s1364-6613(02)01899-5.
Morgan, M.J. (2002). Out of mind: Varieties of unconscious processes. TRENDS IN COGNITIVE SCIENCES, 6(10), pp. 443–445. doi:10.1016/S1364-6613(02)01899-5.
Nunn, J.A., Gregory, L.J., Brammer, M., Williams, S.C.R., Parslow, D.M., Morgan, M.J. … Gray, J.A. (2002). Functional magnetic resonance imaging of synesthesia: activation of V4/V8 by spoken words. NATURE NEUROSCIENCE, 5(4), pp. 371–375. doi:10.1038/nn818.
Morgan, M.J. (2002). Lotze and the theory of local signs. PERCEPTION, 31, pp. 3–3.
Sloper, J.J., Davis, A.R., Neveu, M.N., Hogg, C.R., Holder, G.E., Fitzke, F.W. … Morgan, M.J. (2001). Psychophysical assessment of magnocellular and parvocellular function in early and late onset strabismic amblyopes. INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE, 42(4).
Felisberti, F. and Morgan, M.J. (2001). Orientation averaging and positional uncertainty in crowded and spaced arrays. PERCEPTION, 30, pp. 37–38.
Morgan, M.J. (2001). Motion-stereo mechanisms respond to interocular phase differences of Fourier components. PERCEPTION, 30, pp. 69–69.
Morgan, M.J. (2001). Failure of dichoptic prism adaptation. PERCEPTION, 30, pp. 113–113.
Solomon, J.A. and Morgan, M.J. (2001). Odd-men-out are poorly localized in brief exposures. J Vis, 1(1), pp. 9–17. doi:10.1167/1.1.2.
Morgan, M.J. and Fahle, M. (2000). Motion-stereo mechanisms sensitive to inter-ocular phase. Vision Res, 40(13), pp. 1667–1675. doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(00)00016-x.
MORGAN, M.J., PERRY, R. and FAHLE, M. (1997). The Spatial Limit for Motion Detection in Noise Depends on Element Size, not on Spatial Frequency. Vision Research, 37(6), pp. 729–736. doi:10.1016/s0042-6989(96)00208-8.
Fahle, M. and Morgan, M. (1996). No transfer of perceptual learning between similar stimuli in the same retinal position. Current Biology, 6(3), pp. 292–297. doi:10.1016/s0960-9822(02)00479-7.
Bowns, L. and Morgan, M.J. (1994). Facial features and axis of symmetry extracted using natural orientation information. Biological Cybernetics, 71, pp. 186–186.
MORGAN, M.J. and TYLER, C.W. (1993). THE DYNAMIC VISUAL NOISE STEREOPHENOMENON REVISITED. INVESTIGATIVE OPHTHALMOLOGY & VISUAL SCIENCE, 34(4), pp. 708–708.
Bowns, L. and Morgan, M.J. (1993). Facial features and axis of symmetry extracted using natural orientation information. Biological Cybernetics, 70, pp. 137–144.
(1992). Effects of pattern element density upon displacement limits for motion detection in random binary luminance patterns. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 248(1322), pp. 189–198. doi:10.1098/rspb.1992.0061.
Morgan, M.J., Ross, J. and Hayes, A. (1991). The relative importance of local phase and local amplitude in patchwise image reconstruction. Biological Cybernetics, 65, pp. 113–119.
Solomon, J.A. and morgan, Orientation-defined boundaries are detected with low efficiency. Vision Research.
Morgan, M.J. Combining Local and Global Cues to Motion. . doi:10.3758/s13414-017-1374-x.

Working paper

Morgan, M.J. and Solomon, J.A. Attention and the motion after effect: New measurements with visual search reveal important individual differences in adaptability.