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James Ives
Postdoctoral Researcher
Address:
Centre for Brain and Cognitive Development
Henry Wellcome Building
Birkbeck, University of London
Malet Street
London
WC1E 7HX
Research Interests:
My research focuses on infant cognitive development, particularly the neural mechanisms underlying both typical and atypical developmental trajectories. I am especially interested in how neural entrainment supports early sensory and cognitive processing, including speech-brain tracking and the emergence of rhythm perception across the first two years of life.
Recently, I have expanded my work to investigate neural entrainment in clinically at-risk populations, exploring how disruptions in rhythmic neural activity may serve as early markers of neurodevelopmental conditions such as autism and ADHD. My research integrates EEG, computational modelling, and machine learning to develop automated pipelines for analysing complex neurophysiological data. I am passionate about leveraging new hardware and data collection techniques to enhance the scope and accessibility of psychological and neuroscientific research.
In addition to my experimental work, I enjoy coding in MATLAB and Python, developing tools that improve data processing and analysis pipelines for the wider research community.
Education and Professional Experience:
  • 2023-present – Postdoctoral Researcher on EU-AIMS reporting to Prof. Emily Jones at the Centre of Brain and Cognitive Development, Birkbeck College, University of London, UK.
  • 2020-2023 - PhD Researcher – Supervisors Prof Sam Wass, Prof Victoria Leong – ONACSA project
  • 2009-2014 – MPsych (Hons) Advanced Psychology: Cognitive and Brain Science Pathway, University of Plymouth. Supervisor Prof Jeremy Goslin.
Publications:
  • Labendzki, P., Greenwood, E., Esposito, G., Viswanathan, N., Northrop, T., Ives, J., Perapoch Amadó, M., Reisner, S., Ma, X., Goupil, L., Wass, S. (preprint). Frequency, amplitude and semantic complexity trade-offs in infant-directed speech. DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.29487.55204
  • Perapoch Amadó, M., Greenwood, E., Ives, J., Labendzki, P., Marriott Haresign, I., Lancaster, K., Northrop T. J., Phillips E., Viswanathan, N. K., Whitehorn, M., Jones, E. J. H., Wass, S. V. (submitted). Naturalistic attention transitions from subcortical to cortical control during infancy.
  • Perapoch Amadó, M., Philips, E., Esposito, G., Greenwood, E., Ives, J., Labendzki, P., Northrop, T., Viswanathan, N., Gok, M., Penaherrera, M., Wass, S. (2025). Who leads and who follows? The pathways to joint attention during free-flowing interactions change over developmental time. https://doi.org/10.1111/cdev.14229
  • Philips, E., Goupil, L., Ives, J., Labendzki, P., Whitehorn, M., Marriott Haresign, I., Wass, S. (submitted). Examining speech-brain tracking during early bidirectional, free-flowing caregiver-infant interactions. bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.05.16.594544
  • Perapoch Amadó, M., Greenwood, E., Ives, J., Labendzki, P., Haresign, I. M., Northrop T. J., Phillips, E. A. M., Viswanathan, N. K., Whitehorn, M., Jones, E. J. H., & Wass, S. V. (2024). The neural and physiological substrates of real-world attention change across development. eLife, 12:RP92171. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.92171.1
  • Wass, S. V., Perapoch Amadó, M., & Ives, J. (2022). Oscillatory entrainment to our early social or physical environment and the emergence of volitional control. Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, 54. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcn.2022.101102
Conference posters/presentations:
  • Esposito, G., Greenwood, E., Ives, J., Labendzki, P., Lancaster, K., Northrop, T., Perapoch Amado, M., Phillips, E., Viswanathan, N., Boets, B., & Wass, S.V. (2024). Matching or Modeling: Maternal Affective Responses to Infant Distress (Poster). International Society for Developmental Psychology. Chicago, USA.
  • Ives, J., Labendzki, P., Perapoch Amado, M., Greenwood, E., Viswanathan, N., Northrop, T., Esposito, G., Lancaster, K., & Wass, S.V. (2024). Do Adults and Infants Entrain to Stimulus Beats or Isochronous Rhythms? Evidence From a Novel Jittered Audio Approach. (Poster). Neurodevelopment Annual Seminar, Norwich, UK.
  • Northrop, T., Lancaster, K., Labendzki, P., Pearce, E., Poli, F., Peraposch Amadó, M., Ives, J., Viswanathan, N., Tolmie, A., & Wass, S. (2024). Too random, too predictable, or just right: does toddler construction play show ‘Goldilocks’ complexity? (Symposium). International Congress of Infant Studies. Glasgow, Scotland.
  • Viswanathan, N., Perapoch Amadó, M., Ives, J., Northrop, T., Labendzki, P., Esposito, G., Greenwood, E., Guida, E., & Wass, S. (2024). Analysing Vocal Contingency in Parent-Infant Interactions: Consistency and Variability Across Contexts and Development. (Symposium). International Congress of Infant Studies. Glasgow, Scotland.
  • Labendzki, P., Greenwood, E., Esposito, G., Ives, J., Northrop, T., Perapoch Amadó, M., Goupil, L., Wass, S. (2023). Form-function relationship in the amplitude and frequency modulations of infant-directed speech: A predictive processing perspective. (Poster). Lancaster Conference on Infant and Early Child Development, Lancaster. https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/lcicd/
  • Greenwood, E., Labendzki, P., Perapoch Amadó, M., Ives, J., Viswanathan, N., Northrop, T., Wass, S. (2022). How are patterns of parental vocalisations associated with infant quieting after peak arousal events?
  • Ives, J., Labendzki, P., Perapoch Amadó, M., Greenwood, E., Viswanathan, N., Northrop, T., Wass, S. (2022). Measuring infant entrainment preferences to low frequency amplitude modulated stimuli. (Poster). 1st CBCD Workshop on Naturalistic Experimentation of Child Development (NECD). Birkbeck College, University of London, UK. https://www.cbcd-necd.co.uk/
  • Northrop, T. Labendzki, P., Sutton, I., Viswanathan, N., Greenwood, E., Ives, J., Perapoch Amadó, M., Tolmie, A., Wass, S. (2022). The role of increasing predictability in the development of hierarchical event structuring. (Poster). Sapiens. University of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium. https://www.sapiensconference.org/
  • Perapoch Amadó, M., Marriott Haresign, I., Ives, J., Greenwood, E., Viswanathan, N., Labendzki, P., Northrop, T., Phillips, E., Whitehorn, M., Jones, E., & Wass, S. (2022). How are Infant's Attentional Behaviours During Free Play Substantiated in Their Brains? (Poster). The International Congress of Infant Studies. Ottawa, Canada. https://infantstudies.org/
  • Viswanathan, N. K., Labendzki, P., Perapoch Amadó, M., Ives, J., Greenwood, E., Northrop, T., De Klerk, C., Goupil, L., Wass, S. V. (2022a). Assessing The Efficacy of Open-Source Solutions to Automated Facial Coding: A Methods-Comparison Study With EMG. (Poster). Face2face: advancing the science of social interaction.
  • Viswanathan, N. K., Labendzki, P., Perapoch Amadó, M., Ives, J., Greenwood, E., Northrop, T., De Klerk, C., Goupil, L., & Wass., S. V. (2022b). The Sub-second Dynamics of Spontaneous Mimicry: An Electromyography Study Tracking Infant Caregiver Dyads During Free Play. (Poster). The International Congress of Infant Studies. Ottawa, Canada. https://infantstudies.org/
  • Wass, S. V., Perapoch Amadó, M., & Ives, J. (2022). Interpersonal Entrainment of Behaviour, Physiology and Neural Activity During Face-To-Face Infant-Caregiver Interaction: Can We Tell Contingent Responsiveness from Oscillatory Entrainment? (Poster). Face2face: advancing the science of social interaction. Royal Society, London, UK. https://royalsociety.org/science-events-and- lectures/2022/04/social-interaction/