I am an Associate Professor (Senior Lecturer) in the Psychology department at the University of York in the U.K. A link to my Google Scholar Profile is here - link and a copy of my academic CV is here - Pitcher_CV.pdf


I investigate the cortical mechanisms that underlie face perception and emotion processing in the human brain. I use a combination of experimental methods including transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), neuropsychology and neuroimaging.


My research has been funded by the BBSRC, the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and the Simons Foundation for Autism Research Initiative (SFARI).


I once appeared on The One Show (BBC Television) - link


And in August / September 2023 I walked the pilgrimage route from the Pyrenees to Santiago de Compostela. It was 800km, took me 35 days and I loved every minute. Here is a video - link

Dr David Pitcher

Department of Psychology

University of York

York, YO10 5DD

United Kingdom

Email: david.pitcher@york.ac.uk

Publications


Kucuk, E., & Pitcher, D. (2024). Visual Neuroscience: A brain area tuned for processing social interactions.

Current Biology 34(2), R53-R55.

Kucuk_CB2024.pdf


Wang, W., Foxwell, M. J., Cichy, R. M., Pitcher, D., & Kaiser, D. (2024). Individual differences in internal models explain idiosyncrasies in scene perception. Cognition

Wang_Cognition2024.pdf


Pitcher, D. (2023). Visual Neuroscience: A specialised neural pathway for social perception.

Current Biology 33(23), R1222-R1224.

Pitcher_2023_CB_Dispatch.pdf


Pitcher, D., Sliwinska, M. W., & Kaiser, D. (2023). TMS disruption of the lateral prefrontal cortex increases neural activity in the default mode network when naming facial expressions.

Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience, 18 (1), nsad072.

PItcher_SCAN_2023.pdf


Pitcher, D., Caulfield, B., & A. M., Burton (2023). Provoked overt recognition in acquired prosopagnosia using multiple different images of famous faces. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 40 (3-4), 158-166.

Pitcher_2023_CN.pdf


Pitcher, D. (2022). Visual motion: Asymmetrical processing differences between the cerebral hemispheres. Current Biology, 32 (18), R957-960.

Pitcher_2022_CB_Dispatch.pdf


Nikel, L., Sliwinska, M. W., Kucuk, E., Ungerleider, L. G., & Pitcher, D. (2022). Measuring the response to visually presented faces in the human lateral prefrontal cortex. Cerebral Cortex Communications, 3, (3), 1-9.

Nikel_2022_Cer_Cor_Com.pdf


Sliwinska, M. W., Brown, L., Earl., M., O’Gorman, D., Pollicina, G., Burton, A. M., & Pitcher, D. (2022). Familiar face learning in real-world social interactions induces changes in face-selective brain areas and the hippocampus. Perception, 51, (8), 521-538.

Sliwinska_2022_Perception.pdf


Pitcher, D. (2022). Face Processing and TMS. The Oxford Handbook of Transcranial Stimulation (2nd Edition). Oxford University Press.

Pitcher_2022_OUP_Chapter.pdf


Sliwinska, M. W., Elson, R., & Pitcher, D. (2021). Stimulating parietal regions of the multiple-demand cortex impairs novel vocabulary learning. Neuropsychologia,162, 108047.

2021_Sliwinska_Neuropsychologia.pdf


Pitcher, D., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2021). Evidence for a third visual pathway specialized for social perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(2), 100-110.

2021_Pitcher_TICS.pdf

Developmental commentary on 3rd Pathway from Grossman - Grossman_2021_TICS.pdf

Anatomical commentary on 3rd Pathway from Weiner & Gomez - Weiner_2021_TICS.pdf


Pitcher, D. (2021). Characterizing the third visual pathway for social perception. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 25(7), 18-19.

2021_Pitcher_TICS_Letter.pdf


Pitcher, D., Parkin, B., & Walsh, V. (2021). Transcranial magnetic stimulation and the understanding of behaviour. Annual Review of Psychology, 72, 97-121.

2021_Pitcher_AnnRev.pdf


Groen, I. A., Silson, E. H., Pitcher, D., & Baker, C. I. (2021). TMS of lateral occipital cortex reduces BOLD responses across category-selective areas in ventral temporal cortex. Neuroimage, 230, 117790.

Groen_2021_Neuroimage.pdf


Handwerker, D. A., Ianni, G., Gutierrez, B., Roopchansingh, V., Gonzalez-Castillo, J., Chen, G., Bandettini, P. A., Ungerleider, L. G., & Pitcher, D. (2020). Thetaburst TMS to the human posterior superior temporal sulcus disrupts resting-state fMRI connectivity across the face processing network.

Network Neuroscience, 4(3),746-760.

2020_Handwerker_NetNeuro.pdf


Sliwinska, M. W., Bearpark, C., Corkhill, J., McPhillips, A., & Pitcher, D. (2020). Dissociable pathways for moving and static face perception begin in early visual cortex: evidence from an acquired prosopagnosic. Cortex, 130, 327-339.

2020_Sliwinska_Cortex.pdf


Sliwinska, M. W., Elson, R., & Pitcher, D. (2020). TMS demonstrates causal functional connectivity between the left and right posterior temporal sulci during facial expression recognition.

Brain Stimulation, 13(4), 1008-1013.

2020_Sliwinska_Brain_Stim.pdf


Pitcher, D., Pilkington, A., Rauth, L., Baker, C. I., Kravitz, D. J., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2020). The human posterior superior temporal sulcus (pSTS) samples visual space differently from other face-selective regions. Cerebral Cortex, 30(2), 778–785.

2020_Pitcher_CC.pdf

 

Pitcher, D., Ianni, G., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2019). A functional dissociation of face-, body- and scene-selective brain areas based on their response to moving and static stimuli.

Scientific Reports, 9(1), 8242.

2019_Pitcher_SR.pdf


Sliwinska, M. W., & Pitcher, D. (2018). TMS demonstrates that both right and left superior

temporal sulci are important for facial expression recognition. Neuroimage, 183, 394-400.

2018_Sliwinska_Neuroimage.pdf


Pitcher, D., Japee, S., Rauth, L., & Ungerleider, L. G. (2017). The superior temporal sulcus is causally connected to the amygdala: A combined TBS-fMRI study. Journal of Neuroscience, 37(5), 1156-1161.

2017_Pitcher_JN.pdf


Lander, K., & Pitcher, D. (2017). Moving faces and moving bodies: Behavioural and neural correlates of person recognition. Face Processing: Systems, Disorders and Cultural Differences.

2017_Lander_Pitcher.pdf


Pitcher, D., Duchaine, B., & Walsh, V. (2014) Combined TMS and fMRI reveals dissociable cortical pathways for dynamic and static face perception. Current Biology, 24(17), 2066-2070.

2014_Pitcher_CB.pdf


Pitcher, D. (2014). Discriminating facial expressions takes longer in the posterior superior temporal sulcus than in the occipital face area. Journal of Neuroscience, 34(27), 9173-9177.

2014_Pitcher_JoN.pdf


Arzi, A., Banerjee, S., Cox, J., D’Souza, D., De Brigard, F., Doll, B., Fairley, J., Fleming, S., Herholz, S., King, D., Libby, L., Myers, J., Neta, M., Pitcher, D., Power, J., Rass, O., Ritchey, M., Rosales Jubal, E., Royston, A., Wagner, D., Wang, W., Waring, J., Williams, J., & Wood, S. (2014). The significance of cognitive neuroscience: Findings, applications, and challenges. In M.S. Gazzaniga (Ed.), The Cognitive Neurosciences (5th ed.). Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.

Arzi2014.pdf


Rezlescu, C., Barton, J. J., Pitcher, D., & Duchaine, B. (2014). Normal acquisition of expertise with a novel object class in two cases of acquired prosopagnosia. PNAS, 111(14), 5123-5128.

2014_Rezlescu_PNAS.pdf


Rezlescu, C., Pitcher, D., & Duchaine, B. (2012). Acquired prosopagnosia with spared within-class object recognition but impaired recognition of basic-level objects. Cognitive Neuropsychology, 29(4), 325–347.

2012_Rezlescu_CN.pdf


Pitcher, D., Goldhaber, T., Duchaine, B., Walsh, V., & Kanwisher, N. (2012). Two critical and functionally distinct stages of face and body perception. Journal of Neuroscience, 32(45), 15877-15885.

2012_Pitcher_JoN.pdf


Sadeh, B., Pitcher, D., Brandman, T., Eisen, A., Thaler, A., & Yovel, G. (2011). Stimulation of object-category selective areas modulates ERP to their preferred categories. Current Biology, 21(22), 1894-1899.

2012_Sadeh_CB.pdf


Pitcher, D., Duchaine, B., Walsh, V., Yovel, G., & Kanwisher, N. (2011). The role of the occipital face area and lateral occipital area in the face inversion effect. Neuropsychologia, 49, 3448-3453.

2011_Pitcher_Neuropsychologia.pdf


Pitcher, D., Dilks, D. D., Saxe, R. R., Triantafyllou, C., & Kanwisher, N. (2011). Differential selectivity for dynamic versus static information in face-selective cortical regions. NeuroImage, 56, 2356-2363.

2011_Pitcher_Neuroimage.pdf


Pitcher, D., Walsh, V., & Duchaine, B. (2011). The role of the occipital face area in the cortical face perception network. Experimental Brain Research, 209, 481-493.

2011_Pitcher_EBR.pdf


Pitcher, D., Walsh, V., & Duchaine, B. (2011). Transcranial magnetic stimulation investigations of face perception. The Handbook of Face Perception. Series edited by Calder, A. J., Rhodes, G., Haxby, J. V., & Johnson, M. H. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

OUP_TMS_Chapter_pdf.pdf


Pitcher, D., Charles, L., Devlin, J. T., Walsh, V., & Duchaine, B. (2009). Triple Dissociation of Faces, Bodies, and Objects in Extrastriate Cortex. Current Biology, 19(4), 319-324.

2009_Pitcher_CB.pdf

Commentary by Downing - downing_dispatch.pdf


Pitcher, D., Garrido, L., Walsh, V., & Duchaine, B. (2008). TMS disrupts the perception and embodiment of facial expressions. Journal of Neuroscience, 28(36), 8929-8933.

2008_Pitcher_JoN.pdf

Science Editors Choice - science_editors_choice.pdf

Journal Club by Hussey & Safford - JoN_Journal_Club.pdf


Pitcher, D., Walsh, V., Yovel, G., & Duchaine, B. (2007). TMS evidence for the involvement of the right occipital face area in early face processing. Current Biology, 17(18), 1568-1573.

2007_Pitcher_CB.pdf

Commentary by Downing - Downing_Dispatch_2007.pdf