ABRG - Prof Tony Prescott

Prof Tony Prescott (ABRG Co-director)

Contact

Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TP, UK.

Tel: +44 (0) 114 222 6547

Fax: +44 (0) 114 276 6515 (shared with department)

Summary

I am a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sheffield, Co-Director of the University's Adaptive Behaviour Research Group and a Visiting Fellow at Bristol Robotics Laboratory.

My research is concerned with understanding brain function using methods in the computational, neural, and behavioural sciences. An important focus of is on comparing the control problems faced by animals and robots: (i) using insights from robotics and artificial intelligence to understand the control architecture of the brain, (ii) using evidence from brain evolution to inspire the design of robot control systems, and (iii) using robots to evaluate computational models of neural systems and to test hypotheses that are difficult to investigate in vivo.

Research Interests

Active sensing (particularly active touch)
Computational models of natural action selection
The layered control architecture of the vertebrate brain
Robot models of biological control systems
Behavioural and cognitive deficits in Parkinson's Disease and Schizophrenia
Dynamics of child development (focusing on Children's drawing skills)

Qualifications

MA Psychology (Edinburgh, 1984)
MSc Applied Artificial Intelligence (Aberdeen, 1989)
PhD "Explorations in model-based and reinforcement learning" (Sheffield, 1994)

Web Resources - Ongoing Projects

BIOmimetic Technology for vibrissal ACtive Touch (BIOTACT) (2008-): Co-ordinator and Sheffield Principal Investigator for this EU Framework 7 project in collaboration with six research groups in seven countries. Research at Sheffield is focused on computational and ethological studies of active touch in the rat whisker system.

Integrating cognition, emotion, and autonomy (ICEA) (2006-): Sheffield Principal Investigator on an EU Framework 6 project in collaboration with various European partners to develop a mobile robot control system inspired by functional architecture of the rat brain. Research at Sheffield is focused on the computational neuroscience of spatial cognition and tactile sensing.

Modelling the control architecture of the vertebrate brain (1998-): Computational and robotic models of functional systems in the vertebrate brain, currently focusing on the likely role of the basal ganglia and related structures in action selection. Currently funded by the EPSRC REVERB project.

Action selection theme issue (2005-): Lead editor, with Joanna Bryson and Anil Seth (co-editors), of a theme issue of Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B. Biological Sciences on "Models of Natural Action Selection" with fifteen contributions from leading international research groups. The issue, which is based on a workshop held in Edinburgh in July 2005, has been available online and in print in since September 2007.

Web Resources - Past Projects

Whiskerbot: a robot model of the rat whisker system 2003-2006): An EPSRC-funded project in collaboration with Bristol Robotics Laboratory to design and implement a multi-whisker sensory system, modelled on that of the rat, and capable of supporting object detection and surface texture analysis.

The early evolution of spatial behaviour (1996-1997): Robot models of the 'trace fossil' patterns generated by PreCambrian animals.

Spatial learning and navigation (1992-1996): Theoretical and computational approaches to navigation and spatial representation in animals and robots.

Details of external research funding

Peer-reviewed print articles

2012

Grant, R. A., Mitchinson, B., Prescott, T.J. (2012), The development of whisker control in rats in relation to locomotion, Developmental Psychobiology, 54(2):151-168.
Sullivan J, Mitchinson B, Pearson M, Evans M, Lepora N, Fox C, Melhuish C and Prescott T. (2012), Tactile Discrimination using Active Whisker Sensors., IEEE Sensors Journal, 12(2):350-362.

2011

Lepora N, Fox C, Evans M, Mitchinson B, Motiwala A, Sullivan J, Pearson M, Welsby J, Pipe T, Gurney K and Prescott T (2011), A general classifier of whisker data using stationary naïve Bayes: Application to BIOTACT robots, Springer LNCS proceedings of Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS), 6856/2011:13-23.
Motiwala A, Fox C, Lepora N and Prescott T. (2011), Sensing with artificial tactile sensors: An investigation of spatio-temporal inference, LNCS proceedings of Towards Autonomous robotic systems, 6856/2011:253-264.
Fox C, Evans M, Lepora N, Pearson M, Hamm A and Prescott T (2011), Crunchbot: A mobile whiskered robot platform. , Springer LNCS proceedings of Towards Autonomous robotic systems (TAROS).
Tony J. Prescott, Ben Mitchinson, Robyn A. Grant (2011), Vibrissal behavior and function, Scholarpedia, 6(10):6642.
Ben Mitchinson, Robyn A. Grant, Kendra Arkley, Vladan Rankov, Igor Perkon and Tony J. Prescott (2011), Active vibrissal sensing in rodents and marsupials, Philosophical Transactions Royal Society B, 366(1581):3037-3048.
Wilson, S. P., Bednar JA, Prescott TJ, Mitchinson B (2011), Neural computation via neural geometry: A place code for inter-whisker timing in the barrel cortex?, PLoS Computational Biology, 7(10):e1002188.
Mitchinson B, Pearson M J, Pipe A G, Prescott T J (2011), Biomimetic robots as scientific models: A view from the whisker tip, Neuromorphic and Brain-Based Robots: Trends and Perspectives, edited by Jeffery L. Krichmar and Hiroaki Wagatsuma, Cambridge University Press.
Martin J. Pearson, Ben Mitchinson, J. Charles Sullivan, Anthony G. Pipe and Tony J. Prescott (2011), Biomimetic vibrissal sensing for robots, Philosophical Transactions Royal Society B, 366(1581):3085-3096.

2010

Chambers, J. M. and Prescott, T. J. (2010), Response times for visually guided saccades in persons with Parkinson's disease: A meta-analytic review, Neuropsychologia, 48(4):887-899.
Ben Mitchinson, Tak-Shing Chan, Jon Chambers, Martin Pearson, Mark Humphries, Charles Fox, Kevin Gurney, Tony J. Prescott (2010), BRAHMS: Novel middleware for integrated systems computation, Advanced Engineering Informatics, 24(1):49-61.
Evans M, Fox C, Pearson M, Lepora N and Prescott T. (2010), Whisker-object contact speed affects radial distance estimation, Proceedings of 2010 International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2010)..
Lepora N, Pearson M, Mitchinson B, Evans M, Fox C, Pipe T, Gurney K and Prescott T (2010), Naive Bayes novelty detection in a whiskered moving robot, IEEE procedings of International Conference on Robotics and Biomimetics (ROBIO 2010).
G. Gyory, V. Rankov, G. Gordon, I. Perkon, B. Mitchinson, R. Grant, T. Prescott (2010), An algorithm for automatic tracking of rat whiskers, Proc. Int. Workshop on Visual observation and Analysis of Animal and Insect Behavior (VAIB), Istanbul, in conjunction with ICPR 2010.
Wilson, S. P., Law, J. S., Mitchinson, B., Prescott, T. J., Bednar, J. A. (2010), Modeling the emergence of whisker direction maps in rat barrel cortex, PLoS ONE, 5(1): e8778.
Lepora, N, M Evans, C. Fox, M.E. Diamond, K.N. Gurney and T.J. Prescott (2010), Naive Bayes texture classification applied to whisker data from a moving robot, IEEE World Congress on Computational Intelligence.
Humphries, M. D., and Prescott, T. J. (2010), The ventral basal ganglia, a selection mechanism at the crossroads of space, strategy, and reward, Progress in Neurobiology, 90:385-417.

2009

Fox, C., Humphries, M., Mitchinson, B., Kiss, T,; Somogyvari, Z. & Prescott, T. (2009), Technical integration of hippocampus, basal ganglia and physical models for spatial navigation, Frontiers in Neuroinformatics, 3:6.
Prescott, T. J., Pearson, M., Mitchinson, B., Sullivan, J. C. W., Pipe, A. G. (2009), Whisking with robots: From rat vibrissae to biomimetic technology for active touch, IEEE Robotics and Automation Magazine, 16(3), 42-50.
Robyn Anne Grant, Ben Mitchinson, Charles W. Fox, and Tony J. Prescott (2009), Active touch sensing in the rat: Anticipatory and regulatory control of whisker movements during surface exploration, Journal of Neurophysiology, 101:862-874.
Fox, C. W., Mitchinson, B., Pearson, M. J., Pipe, A. G., Prescott, T. J. (2009), Behavioral dependency of texture classification in a whiskered mobile robot, Autonomous Robots, 26(4), 223-239.

2008

Mitchinson B., Arabzadeh E., Diamond M. E., Prescott T. J. (2008), Spike-timing in primary sensory neurons: A model of somatosensory transduction in the rat, Biological Cybernetics, 98(3):185-194.
Prescott, T. J. (2008), Action Selection, Scholarpedia, 3(2):2705.

2007

Montes-Gonzalez, F. M., Prescott, T. J., Negrete-Martinez, J. (2007), Minimizing human intervention in the development of basal ganglia inspired robot control, Applied Bionics and Biomechanics, 4(3): 101-109.
Humphries, M. D., Gurney, K. & Prescott, T. J. (2007), Is there a brainstem substrate for action selection?, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 362(1485):1627-1639. [Code]
Prescott, T. J., Bryson, J. J., Seth, A. (2007), Introduction to the theme issue on modelling natural action selection, Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 36291485):1521-1529.
Mitchinson B., Martin C.J., Grant R.A., Prescott T.J. (2007), Feedback control in active sensing: rat exploratory whisking is modulated by environmental contact, Royal Society Proceedings B, 274(1613).
Prescott, T. J. (2007), Forced moves or good tricks in design space? Landmarks in the evolution of neural mechanisms for action selection, Adaptive Behavior, 15: 9-31.
Martin J. Pearson, Anthony G. Pipe, Chris Melhuish, Ben Mitchinson and Tony J. Prescott (2007), Whiskerbot: A Robotic Active Touch System Modeled on the Rat Whisker Sensory System, Adaptive Behavior, 15:223-240.
Prescott, T . J. & Humphries, M. D. (2007), Who dominates who in the dark basements of the brain? Commentary on Merker, B. “Consciousness without a cerebral cortex: A challenge for neuroscience and medicine”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 30:104-105.

2006

Humphries, M. D., Gurney, K. & Prescott, T. J. (2006), The brainstem reticular formation is a small-world, not scale-free, network, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 273:503-511. [Code]
Prescott, T. J., Newton, L. D., Mir, N. U., and Parks, R. W. (2006), A new dissimilarity measure for finding semantic structure in category fluency data with implications for understanding memory organization in schizophrenia, Neuropsychology, 20:685-99.
Humphries, M. D. & Prescott, T. J. (2006), Distributed action selection by a brainstem neural substrate: An embodied evaluation, From Animals to Animats 9: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, pp. 199-210, Springer-Verlag: Berlin.
Gurney K.N, Prescott AJ, Redgrave P (2006), A Theoretical Treatment of Basal Banglia Function, Nova Science Pub Inc., (Bezard E, ed).
Prescott, T. J., Montes-Gonzalez, F., Gurney, K., Humphries, M. D. and Redgrave, P. (2006), A robot model of the basal ganglia: Behavior and intrinsic processing, Neural Networks, 19:31-61.
Mitchinson, B. Pearson, M., Melhuish, C., and Prescott, T.J. (2006), A model of sensorimotor co-ordination in the rat whisker system, From Animals to Animats 9: Proceedings of the Ninth International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, (Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence, 4095). Springer-Verlag: Berlin, 77-88.

2005

Humphries, M. D., Gurney, K. & Prescott, T. J. (2005), Is there an integrative center in the vertebrate brain-stem? A robotic evaluation of a model of the reticular formation viewed as an action selection device, Adaptive Behaviour, 13:97-113.
Chambers, J. M., Gurney, K., Humphries, M. & Prescott, T. (2005), Mechanisms of choice in the primate brain: a quick look at positive feedback, Modelling Natural Action Selection, J. J. Bryson, T. J. Prescott & A. Seth, pp. 45-52, AISB Press..
Pearson, M. J., Gilhespy, I., Melhuish, C., Mitchinson, B., Nibouche, M., Pipe, A. G., Prescott, T. J. (2005), A biomimetic haptic sensor, Journal of Advanced Robotic Systems, 2:335-343.
Humphries, M., Gurney, K. & Prescott, T. (2005), Action selection in a macroscopic model of the brainstem reticular formation, Modelling Natural Action Selection, J. J. Bryson, T. J. Prescott & A. Seth, pp. 61-68, AISB Press.
Pearson MJ, Gilhespy I, Melhuish C, Mitchinson B, Nibouche B, Pipe AG, Prescott TJ (2005), A Biologically inspired haptic sensor array for use in mobile robotic vehicles, Proceedings of Towards Autonomous Robotic Systems (TAROS), Imperial College, London.

2004

Gurney, K., Humphries, M., Wood, R., Prescott, T.J. & Redgrave, P. (2004), Testing computational hypotheses of brain systems function: a case study with the basal ganglia, Network: Computation in Neural Systems, 15:263-290. [Code]
Mitchinson, B. M., Gurney, K. N., Redgrave, P., Melhuish, C., Pipe, A. G., Pearson, M., Gilhespy, I. & Prescott, T. J. (2004), Empirically inspired simulated electro-mechanical model of the rat mystacial follicle-sinus-complex, Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 271:2509-2516.
Gurney, K., Prescott, T.J., Wickens, J. R. & Redgrave, P. (2004), Computational models of the basal ganglia: from robots to membranes, Trends in Neurosciences, 27:453-459.

2003

Crowe, S. J. and T. J. Prescott (2003), Continuity and Change in the Development of Category Structure: Insights from the Semantic Fluency Task, International Journal of Behavioural Development, 27: 467-479.
Girard B, Cuzin V, Guillot A, Gurney KN, Prescott TJ (2003), Comparison of a “winner-takes-all” and a vertebrate inspired model of action selection embedded in a Lego Mindstorms robot , Journal of Integrative Neuroscience , 2:179-200.
Humphries, M. D., Prescott, T. J. & Gurney, K. N. (2003), The interaction of recurrent axon collateral networks in the basal ganglia, Artifical Neural Networks and Neural Information Processing, O. Kaynak, E. Alpaydin, E. Oja & L. Xu (Eds.), ICANN/ICONIP 2003 (LNCS 2714) pp. 797-804, Berlin: Springer-Verlag.
Prescott, T. J., Gurney, K., and Redgrave, P. (2003), Basal Ganglia, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks, M. A. Arbib (Ed.), 2nd Edition .
Redgrave, P., Prescott, T.J. & Gurney, K. (2003), Selection and the basal ganglia: A role for dopamine, Basal Ganglia VI,, Graybiel, A.M and DeLong, M. (Eds.). New York: Kluwer.
J. Eiser, J. R., Fazio, R. H., Stafford, T. & Prescott, T. J. (2003), Connectionist simulation of attitude learning: Asymmetries in the acquisition of positive and negative evaluations, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 29:1221-1235.

2002

Prescott, T.J., K.N. Gurney, and P. Redgrave (2002), The Basal Ganglia, The Handbook of Brain Theory and Neural Networks. MIT Press..
Girard, B., Cuzin, V., Guillot, A., Gurney, K., and Prescott, T.J. (2002), Comparing a brain-inspired robot action selection mechanism with winner-takes-all, From Animals to Animats 7: Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 75–84.
Prescott, T. J., Gurney, K., Montes-Gonzalez, F., Humphries, M. and Redgrave, P. (2002), The robot basal ganglia: Action selection by an embedded model of the basal ganglia, Basal Ganglia VII, L. F. B. Nicholson and R. Faulls (Eds.) New York: Plenum Press.

2001

Gurney, K., Redgrave, P. & Prescott, T.J. (2001), A computational model of action selection in the basal ganglia II. Analysis and simulation of behaviour, Biological Cybernetics, 84:411-423.
Gurney, K., Redgrave, P. & Prescott, T.J. (2001), A computational model of action selection in the basal ganglia I. A new functional anatomy, Biological Cybernetics, 84:401-410.

2000

Montes Gonzalez, F. Prescott, T.J., Gurney, K. Humphries, M., & Redgrave, P. (2000), An embodied model of action selection mechanisms in the vertebrate brain, From Animals to Animats 6: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, J-A. Meyer, A. Berthoz, D. Floreano, H. Roitblat, & S. W. Wilson (Eds.), Cambridge MA: MIT Press.

1999

Hartley, S.J., Prescott, T.J. & Nicolson, R. (1999), Feature Distributions and Experimental Evaluation in a Connectionist Model of Semantic Memory, Connectionist models in Cognitive Neuroscience, G. Humphreys, D, Heinke, A.Olsen (Eds). London: Springer-Verlag. p. 158-167.
Redgrave, P., Prescott, T.J. & Gurney, K. (1999), The basal ganglia: a vertebrate solution to the selection problem?, Neuroscience, 89:1009-1023.
Redgrave, P., Prescott, T.J. & Gurney, K. (1999), Is the short latency dopamine burst too short to signal reinforcement error?, Trends in Neurosciences, 22:146-151.
Prescott, T.J., Redgrave, P., & Gurney, K. (1999), Layered control architectures in robots and vertebrates, Adaptive Behavior, 7:99-127.

1998

Gurney, K., Prescott, T.J., & Redgrave, P. (1998), The basal ganglia viewed as an action selection device, The Proceedings of the International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, Springer-Verlag: Berlin, pp1033-1038.
Hartley, S.J., Prescott, T.J. & Nicolson, R. (1998), Experimental and connectionist perspectives on semantic memory development, Proceedings of Twentieth Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, Wisconsin, USA, pp. 478-48.
Crowe, A., Porrill, J., & Prescott, T. J. (1998), Kinematic coordination of reach and balance, Journal of Motor Behavior, 30:217–233.

1997

Prescott, T. J. & Ibbotson, C. (1997), A robot trace-maker: modelling the fossil evidence of early invertebrate behavior, Artificial Life, 3:289-306.

1996

Prescott, T. J. (1996), Spatial representation for navigation in animats, Adaptive Behavior, 4: 85-123.

1994

Prescott, T. J. (1994), Spatial learning and representation in animats, From Animals to Animats 3: Proceedings of the 3rd International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, Meyer, J-A., Roitblat, H.L., Wilson, S.W. (eds.), MIT Press, Cambridge MA, pp. 164–173.

1993

Prescott, T.J. and Mayhew, J.E.W. (1993), Building long-range cognitive maps using local landmarks, From Animals to Animats 2: Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Simulation of Adaptive Behaviour, Meyer, J-A., Roitblat, H.L., Wilson, S.W. (eds.), MIT Press: Cambridge MA, pp. 233–242.

1992

Prescott, T. J. and Mayhew, J.E.W. (1992), Adaptive local navigation, Active Vision, Blake, A. and Yuille, A. (eds.), MIT Press: Cambridge MA. p 203-215.
Prescott, T.J. and Mayhew, J.E.W. (1992), Obstacle avoidance through reinforcement learning, Advances in Neural Information Processing Systems 4, Moody, J.E., Hanson, S.J., and Lippmann, R.P. (eds.), Morgan Kaufmann: New York, pp. 523–530.

Other work

Mitchinson, B., T.S. Chan, J.M. Chambers, M D Humphries, C. Fox, K.N. Gurney, and T J Prescott (2008), BRAHMS: Novel middleware for integrated systems computation, SfN 2008 Washington, Neuroscience Meeting Planner, Poster 798.10/VV3.
Pipe, A.J., C. Melhuish, M. Pearson, I. Gilhespy, B. Mitchinson, K.N. Gurney, and A.J. Prescott (2005), Artificial, active vibrissal array modeling the mechanics and neurology of rat whisking, SfN 2005, Washington.
Mitchinson, B., A.J. Prescott, K.N. Gurney, M. Pearson, I. Gilhespy, and A.J. Pipe (2005), A computational model of a brainstem loop for whisker pattern generation, SfN 2005, Washington.
Gurney, K. N., A.J. Prescott, J.R. Wickens, and P Redgrave (2004), Mechanism mining and mapping in models of the basal ganglia, 8th IBAGS Meeting, Crieff, Scotland.
Humphries, M., R. Stewart, T.J. Prescott, P. Redgrave, and K.N. Gurney (2004), A spiking neuron model of basal ganglia demonstrating plausible action selection and switching, International Basal Ganglia Society (IBAGS) VIIIth International Triennial Meeting. Crieff, Scotland..
Prescott, T. J. Gurney, K. Gonzalez, F. M., Humphries, M. & Redgrave, P. (2003), Action selection in a robot model of the basal ganglia: The role of simulated dopamine, Society for Neuroscience, Program No. 915.5.
Parks, R.W., M.D. Hunter, K.N. Gurney, T.J. Prescott, D.S. Levine, I.D. Wilkinson, F. Clay, E. Pegg, P.W.R. Woodruff, and S.A. Spence (2003), A stroop task protocol with overt verbal response during fMRI, uman Brain Mapping Conference, New York, USA..
Pegg, E.J., K.N. Gurney, R.W. Parks, and A.J. Prescott (2003), Reliability and Validity of a Paced Computer Stroop Task for fMRI Reliability and validity of a paced computer Stroop task for fMRI, Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 18, (7), 755.
Prescott, T.J., K.N. Gurney, F. Montes-Gonzalez, M. Humphries, and P. Redgrave (2001), The robot basal ganglia: Control of action selection by an embedded model of the basal ganglia, VIth Triennial neeting of the International basal Ganglia Society. Bay of Islands, New Zealand..
Prescott, T.J., F. Montes-Gonzales, K.N. Gurney, M. Humphries, and P. Redgrave (2001), Why is efference copy information sent to the basal ganglia? inspiration from an embodied model, BNA 16th National Meeting, 91.
Gonzalez, F.Montes, T.J. Prescott, K.N. Gurney, M. Humphries, and P. Redgrave (2000), The robot basal ganglia: control of robot action selection by an embodied model of the vertebrate basal ganglia, In Federation of European Neurosciences Meeting, Brighton, UK, vol 12, supp 11.
Gurney, K.N., P. Redgrave, and T.J. Prescott (1998), computational model of selective properties within basal ganglia: a reinterpretation of functional anatomy, SfN 1998, Los Angeles, Neuroscience Meeting Planner #24:649.
Gurney, K., Redgrave, P. & Prescott, T.J. (1998), Analysis and simulation of a model of intrinsic processing in the basal ganglia, Technical Report AIVRU131, The University of Sheffield.
Redgrave, P., T.J. Prescott, and K.N. Gurney (1998), Selection and the basal ganglia: A Role for Dopamine, Vth Triennial neeting of the International basal Ganglia Society. Basal Ganglia. Cape Cod, USA..
Gurney, K.N., T.J. Prescott, and P. Redgrave (1998), A model of intrinsic processing in the basal ganglia, Second International conference on cognitive and neural systems, pp47. Boston..
Redgrave, P., Prescott, T.J., & Gurney, K. (1997), The basal ganglia: a neural architecture for conflict resolution, Soc Neurosci Abstr, 23:192.
Prescott, T.J. (1993), Explorations in reinforcement and model-based learning, Phd thesis, University of Sheffield.