Sensory, Pupillometry, and Eye-tracking Centre (SPECtre)

The Sensory, Pupillometry, and Eye-tracking Centre (SPECtre) at Loughborough University is dedicated to researching visual perception through the measurement of eye movements, pupil dilation, and other physiological responses.

Our goal is to gain a deeper understanding of how the brain processes visual information in various populations and contexts.

Our research focus 

Our research focuses on participants from a variety of backgrounds including people with cognitive impairment, dementia, head injury, mental health issues, and athletes.

Exploring eye movements in different populations, enables us to develop diagnostic markers which are specific to different conditions and further our understanding of disease pathways. Our previous projects have demonstrated that eye movement patterns can provide an early warning sign of cognitive decline as well as enabling the discrimination of different conditions.

We investigate topics such as eye movements, attention, memory, pupil responses, emotional processing, reading, object recognition, and the effects of lifestyle factors (like alcohol, exercise, and sleep) on visual cognition. We employ a rigorous, multidisciplinary approach, drawing on expertise in psychology, neurology, computer science, and human factors.

State of the art facilities 

Our facilities include:

  • two SR Research EyeLink Portable Duo systems,
  • Tobii Glasses 2 (wearable eye-tracking),
  • Tobii X3-120,
  • Tobii X2-30 Compact (screen-based eye-trackers),
  • a PLR-3000 (for precise pupillary light reflex measurement),
  • FaceReader (for remote eye tracking and automated facial expression analysis).

We also have many other tools (including EEG and fNIRS). Overall we are fully equipped to measure eye movements, pupillometry, gaze behaviour, and physiological responses.

These tools allow us to conduct both lab-based and naturalistic/mobile research. 

We are also developing our own eye tracking tools which utilise smartphone cameras, which should help us to take clinical assessment of eye movements out of the laboratory and into clinical environments.

Join our team

SPECtre is home to academics, research staff, PhD students, and dissertation students across various disciplines. We encourage a collaborative and supportive environment for cutting-edge research in visual cognition. 

If you are interested in joining our team, whether for a collaboration or a postgraduate opportunity, please contact Dr. Thom Wilcockson.

Recent papers

  • Wilcockson, T. D., Roy, S., & Crawford, T. J. (2025). Saccadic eye movements differentiate functional cognitive disorder from mild cognitive impairment. Perception, 54(10), 768-779.
  • Wilcockson, T. D., Begde, A., & Hogervorst, E. (2025). Subjective Cognitive Decline and Antisaccade Latency: Exploring Early Markers of Dementia Risk. Journal of Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease, 2(2), 16.
  • Begde, A., Wilcockson, T., Brayne, C., & Hogervorst, E. (2024). Visual processing speed and its association with future dementia development in a population-based prospective cohort: EPIC-Norfolk. Scientific Reports, 14(1), 5016.
  • Polden, M., Wilcockson, T. D., & Crawford, T. J. (2020). The disengagement of visual attention: An eye-tracking study of cognitive impairment, ethnicity and age. Brain Sciences, 10(7), 461.
  • Wilcockson, T. D., Mardanbegi, D., Xia, B., Taylor, S., Sawyer, P., Gellersen, H. W., ... & Crawford, T. J. (2019). Abnormalities of saccadic eye movements in dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment. Aging (Albany NY), 11(15), 5389.