Professor Kaarin Anstey
Senior Principal Research Scientist, Research Advisory Council, Professor of Psychology and Director, UNSW Ageing Futures Institute
Learn more about Kaarin
Mr
Lachlan Kay
Current Appointments
Research Assistant
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Lachlan completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours)(Neuroscience) at the University of New South Wales, where his thesis investigated the use of eye-tracking and pupillometry as a physiological biomarker of visual mental imagery ability and aphantasia (the inability to form mental images). He is currently completing a PhD in Psychology, investigating how mental imagery and aphantasia are implicated in broader cognition.
He joined NeuRA in 2026 as a Research Assistant in the Cognitive Ageing Lab and is currently involved in the Resilient Minds (ReMind) and CogCoach Brain studies. His research interests include cognitive neuroscience, consciousness, and individual differences in internal experience and cognitive functioning.
Publications
2026, 23 Feb
The Nexus of Hoarding and Mental Imagery Extremes: Exploring Hoarding Tendencies in Aphantasia and Hyperphantasia
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1177/00332941261425581
2025, 13 Aug
The nexus of hoarding and mental imagery extremes: Exploring hoarding tendencies in aphantasia and hyperphantasia
View full preprint on http://dx.doi.org/10.31124/advance.175507979.94103201/v1
2024, 01 Aug
Do you see what I see? Linking involuntary non-retinal (phantom) vision and mental imagery in aphantasia
View full preprint on https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/284wc
2024 May
Slower but more accurate mental rotation performance in aphantasia linked to differences in cognitive strategies
View full journal-article on https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2024.103694
2022, 31 Mar
The pupillary light response as a physiological index of aphantasia, sensory and phenomenological imagery strength
View full journal-article on http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/elife.72484
2022, 31 Mar
Achromaphantasia: The Visual Imagery Feature Inventory Reveals a Subgroup with Colourless Imagery
View full conference-paper on https://openresearch.newcastle.edu.au/ndownloader/files/56444930
Lachlan's research projects and related news
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