My research focuses on understanding how the brain selects visual information for action, even when faced with competing demands such as memories, ongoing movements, or—most recently—walking. Across several projects, we have shown that distinct brain areas and processes make causal and dissociable contributions to visual selection. These findings provide some of the clearest evidence that the human brain operates as a set of dynamic sensorimotor networks that influence each other in real time.
Broadly, I am interested in how we perceive the world around us and decide which elements to act upon and which to ignore. This challenge becomes even greater when we are in motion, and I have recently begun a new line of research investigating how visual and vestibular systems interact during cognition.
My publications are organized below by method and theme. I have been fortunate to collaborate with outstanding colleagues, enabling the use of a wide range of brain stimulation methods to uncover the causal roles of neural networks in both healthy cognition and clinical conditions. Some of our most technically demanding work combines brain stimulation online with EEG recordings. More recently, we have begun developing new approaches for both EEG acquisition and multivariate analysis to better capture the dynamics of these networks (first preprint).
After graduate and postdoc work in the UK (Oxford, London), from 2009 onwards I held several Principal Investigator positions at LMU Munich (Germany) including a fellowship in Psychology, a visiting researcher in Philosophy, an associate professorship in Medicine, and an (interim) full professorship in Psychology, and moved to the University of Zürich in April 2025.
Integrating Brain Stimulation and Imaging (TMS–fMRI, tACS–EEG, DBS)
Studies combining stimulation with neuroimaging or electrophysiology to map network-level mechanisms and clinical applications.
van Hattem, T., Chang, K.-Y., Tik, M., Taylor, P., Björklund, J., Bulubas, L., Padberg, F. , Keeser, D., Campana, M. (in press). Contralateral Prefrontal and Network Engagement during Left DLPFC 10 Hz rTMS: An Interleaved TMS-fMRI Study in Healthy Adults. Neuroimage: Clinical.
Hainke, L., Spitschan, M., Priller. J, Taylor, P., Dowsett, J. (in press). 40 Hz Steady-State Visually Evoked Potentials Recovered During Oscillating Transcranial Electrical Stimulation. Biomedical Physics & Engineering Express.
Chang, K.-Y., Tik, M., Mizutani-Tiebel, Y., Taylor, P., van Hattem, T., Falkai, P., Padberg, F., Bulubas, L., & Keeser, D. (2025). Dose-dependent target engagement of a clinical iTBS protocol: An interleaved TMS-fMRI study in healthy subjects. Biological Psychiatry. Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging 10 (8), 804-813.
Chang, K. Y., Tik, M., Mizutani-Tiebel, Y., Schuler, A. L., Taylor, P., Campana, M., ... & Keeser, D. (2024). Neural response during prefrontal theta burst stimulation: Interleaved TMS-fMRI of full iTBS protocols. NeuroImage, 120596.
Dowsett, J., Herrmann, C., Dieterich, M., Taylor, P.C. (2019). Shift in lateralization during illusory self-motion: EEG responses to visual flicker at 10 Hz and frequency-specific modulation by tACS. European Journal of Neuroscience, 51(7):1657-1675.
Hell, F., Taylor, P.C., Mehrkens, J.H., Bötzel, K. (2018). Subthalamic stimulation, oscillatory activity and connectivity reveal functional role of STN and network mechanisms during decision making under conflict. Neuroimage, 171, 222-233.
Perception, Movement, and the Vestibular System (Visual–Vestibular and Mobile EEG Studies)
Studies examining how self-motion and vestibular signals influence visual cognition and attention in naturalistic contexts.
Taylor, P.C. (2024). Chapter 22, Vestibular Processing in Cognition. In The SAGE Handbook of Cognitive and Systems Neuroscience. Eds: Boyle, Barbey, Northoff, Fregni, Jahanshahi, Pascual-Leone, Sahakian.
Mastropasqua, A., Vural, G., Taylor, P.C. (2021). Elements of exogenous attentional cueing preserved during optokinetic motion of the visual scene. European Journal of Neuroscience, 10.1111/ejn.15582. Advance online publication.
Obereisenbuchner, F., Dowsett, J., & Taylor, P. (2021). Self-initiation Inhibits the Postural and Electrophysiological Responses to Optic Flow and Button Pressing. Neuroscience, 470, 37–51.
Dowsett, J., Dieterich, M., Taylor, P.C. (2020). Mobile steady-state evoked potential recording: dissociable neural effects of real-world navigation and visual stimulation. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 332:108540.
Dowsett, J., McAssey, M., Dieterich, M., Taylor, P.C. (2017). Cognition and higher vestibular disorders: developing tools for assessing vection. Journal of Neurology, 264, (S1), 45.
Causal Mechanisms of Visual Cognition (TMS Studies)
Studies using TMS to identify dissociable causal roles of cortical regions in attention, perception, and cognitive control in normal and clinical populations.
Conci, M., Nowack, L., Taylor, P. C., Finke, K., & Müller, H. J. (2025). Right Parietal rTMS Induces Bidirectional Effects of Selective Attention upon Object Integration. Brain Sciences, 15(5), 483.
Schoeberl, F., Dowsett, J., Pradhan, C., Grabova, D., Köhler, A., Taylor, P., & Zwergal, A. (2024). TMS of the left primary motor cortex improves tremor intensity and postural control in primary orthostatic tremor. Journal of Neurology 271, 2938 - 2947.
Christian, P., Kaiser, J., Taylor, P.C., George, M., Schütz-Bosbach, S., & Soutschek, A (2024). Belief updating during social interactions: neural dynamics and causal role of dorsomedial prefrontal cortex. Journal of Neuroscience 44 (22).
Schuwerk, T., Grosso, S. S., & Taylor, P. (2021). The influence of TMS of the rTPJ on attentional control and mentalizing. Neuropsychologia, 162, 108054.
Zinchenko, A., Brunner, S., Chen, L., Shi, Z., Taylor, P., & Müller, H. J. (2021). V5/MT+ modulates spatio-temporal integration differently across and within hemifields: Causal evidence from TMS. Neuropsychologia, 161, 107995.
Hilbert, S., McAssey, M., Bühner, M., Schwaferts, P., Gruber, M., Goerigk, S., Taylor, P.C. (2019). Right hemisphere occipital rTMS impairs working memory in visualizers but not in verbalizers. Scientific Reports, 9(1):6307.
Zinchenko, A., Conci, M., Taylor, P.C., Müller, H.J., Geyer, T (2019). Taking attention out of context: frontopolar transcranial magnetic stimulation abolishes the formation of new context memories for visual search. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 31 (3): 442-452.
Soutschek, A., Taylor, P.C., Schubert, T. (2016). The role of the dorsal medial frontal cortex in central processing limitation: a transcranial magnetic stimulation study. Experimental Brain Research, 234, 2447–2455.
Rangelov, D., Müller, H.J., Taylor, P.C. (2015). Occipital TMS at phosphene detection threshold captures attention automatically. Neuroimage, 109, 199-205.
Soutschek, A., Taylor, P.C., Müller, H.J., Schubert, T. (2013). Dissociable Mechanisms Control Conflict during Perception and Response Selection: a Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation study. Journal of Neuroscience, 33(13):5647-5654.
Real-Time Causal Network Dynamics (Combined Online TMS–EEG Studies)
Studies combining TMS and EEG to reveal real-time causal interactions between brain regions during attention, perception, and action
Mastropasqua, A., Dowsett, J., Dieterich, M., Taylor, P.C. (2020). Right Frontal Eye Field has perceptual and oculomotor functions during optokinetic stimulation and nystagmus. Journal of Neurophysiology, 123(2):571-586
Willacker, L., Dowsett, J., Dieterich, M., Taylor, P.C. (2019). Egocentric processing in the roll plane and dorsal parietal cortex: A TMS-ERP study of the subjective visual vertical. Neuropsychologia, 127:113-122.
Bocca, F., Töllner, T., Müller, H.J., Taylor, P.C. (2015). The right angular gyrus combines perceptual and response-related expectancies in visual search: TMS-EEG evidence. Brain Stimulation, 8(4),816-22.
Taylor, P.C., Muggleton, N.G., Kalla, R., Walsh,V., Eimer,M. (2011). TMS of the right angular gyrus modulates priming of pop-out in visual search: combined TMS-ERP evidence. Journal of Neurophysiology, 106(6), 3001-9.
Taylor, P.C., Walsh,V., Eimer,M. (2010). The neural signature of phosphene perception. Human Brain Mapping, 31(9), 1408-1417.
Taylor, P.C., Nobre, A.C., & Rushworth, M.F. (2007). FEF TMS affects visual cortical activity. Cerebral Cortex, 17(2), 391-399.
Taylor, P.C., Nobre, A.C., & Rushworth, M.F. (2007). Subsecond changes in top down control exerted by human medial frontal cortex during conflict and action selection: a combined transcranial magnetic stimulation electroencephalography study. The Journal of Neuroscience, 27(42), 11343-11353.
Methodological and Conceptual Contributions (Reviews and Commentaries)
Reviews and position papers on combining brain stimulation with recording methods and their role in cognitive neuroscience.
Taylor, P.C. (2018). Combining NIBS with EEG: what can it tell us about normal cognition? Current Behavioral Neuroscience Reports, 5 (2), 165-169.
Taylor, P.C., Thut, G. (2012). Brain activity underlying visual perception and attention as inferred from TMS-EEG: a review. Brain Stimulation, 5(2), 124-9.
Siebner,H.R., Bergmann,T.O., Bestmann,S., Massimini,M., Johansen-Berg,H., Mochizuki,H., Bohning,D.E., Boorman,E.D., Groppa,S., Miniussi,C., Pascual-Leone,A., Huber,R., Taylor,P.C., Ilmoniemi,R.J., De Gennaro,L., Strafella,A.P., Kahkonen,S., Kloppel,S., Frisoni,G.B., George,M.S., Hallett,M., Brandt,S.A., Rushworth,M.F., Ziemann,U., Rothwell,J.C., Ward,N.S., Cohen,L.G., Baudewig,J., Paus,T., Ugawa,Y., Rossini,P.M. (2009). Consensus paper: Combining transcranial magnetic stimulation with neuroimaging. Brain Stimulation, 2(2), 58-80.
O'Shea J., Taylor P.C., Rushworth M.F. (2008). Imaging causal interactions during sensorimotor processing. Cortex, 44(5), 598-608
Taylor, P.C., Walsh V., Eimer M. (2008). Combining TMS and EEG to study cognitive function and cortico-cortico interactions. Behavioural Brain Research, 191(2), 141-7.
Taylor, P.C., Nobre, A.C., & Rushworth, M.F. (2006). Combining correlation and interference methods in the human brain. Focus on "Cortico-cortical interactions in spatial attention: A combined ERP/TMS study". Journal of Neurophysiology, 95(5), 2731-2732.
Interdisciplinary Work (ethical, philosophical etc) and other projects
Antal, A. et al. (2024). The Consequences of the New European Reclassification of Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Devices and the Medical Device Regulations Pose an Existential Threat to Research and Treatment: An Invited Opinion Paper. Clinical Neurophysiology 163, 280-291.
Carstensen, M. W., Sellmaier, S., Taylor, P. C., & Deroy, O. (2023). Dualists and physicalists agree, free will is incompatible with determinism. Philosophical Psychology, 1-19.
Nuttall, R., Jäger, C., Zimmermann, J., Archila-Melendez, M. E., Preibisch, C., Taylor, P., Sauseng, P., Wohlschläger, A., Sorg, C., & Dowsett, J. (2022). Evoked responses to rhythmic visual stimulation vary across sources of intrinsic alpha activity in humans. Scientific reports, 12(1), 5986.
Taylor, P.C., Rushworth, M.F. & Nobre, A.C. (2008). Choosing where to attend and the medial frontal cortex: an FMRI study. Journal of Neurophysiology, 100(3):1397-406.
Rushworth, M.F., & Taylor, P.C. (2007). A paradoxical role for inhibition in initiation. Neuron, 54(5), 669-670.
Stringer, S.M., Rolls, E.T., & Taylor, P. (2007). Learning movement sequences with a delayed reward signal in a hierarchical model of motor function. Neural Networks, 20(2), 172-181.
Rushworth, M.F., & Taylor, P.C. (2006). TMS in the parietal cortex: updating representations for attention and action. Neuropsychologia, 44(13), 2700-2716.