My research training began in Australia, where my PhD focused on synaesthesia and cross-modal attention. I soon came to realise that synaesthesia is not simply a perceptual phenomenon, but emerges from the interplay between semantic knowledge and higher-level perceptual processes. This led me to move to the UK, where I began working with researchers in neurolinguistics to investigate the neural basis of semantic meaning, language, and memory.Therefore, the more I learned about the brain’s language and memory systems, the more I became convinced of the importance of taking a holistic view of brain organisation—considering functional networks, such as the visual, language, and executive-control systems, not in isolation but as interconnected components of a macroscale biological system that gives rise to complex cognition and behaviour. This perspective sparked my interest in the connectome literature and led me to collaborate with connectome researchers to investigate how semantic and language systems are situated within the brain’s broader functional architecture. My past and current research can therefore be organised around four closely interrelated themes:
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How does knowledge
​influence what we see?​
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Recognising visual input is a 2-way process - what we see feeds into what we know & what we know affects how we see. This mutual influence straddles ​between visual perception and abstract cognition, built on both feed-forward sweep (sensory input) and feedback modulation (prior knowledge). To investigate these mutual effects, ​I leverage psychophysical methods, non-​invasive brain stimulation, and functional fMRI to investigate this bidirectional ​interplay. ​My research are published in:
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Chiou & Lambon Ralph (2018, NeuroImage)
Chiou & Lambon Ralph (2016, J. of Neurosci.)
Chiou & Lambon Ralph (2016, Cortex)
​Chiou et al. (2014, JoCN)

How does the brain
​represent knowledge?
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Where and how conceptual knowledge is encoded in the brain have long been contentious topics. Scientists particularly debate over whether concepts are encoded as a distributed pattern across the cortex or encoded within a single, localised region. There are also controversies about how the brain selectively retrieves certain aspects of concepts while ignoring or suppressing other conceptual aspects. To investigate these ​issues, I use neuroimaging and various connectivity and info-decoding ​ ​analysis. Findings have been reported in:

Chiou et al. (2026, J. of Neuroscience)
Chiou et al. (2025, J. of Neuroscience)
Chiou et al. (2023, Trends in Cognitive Science)
Chiou, Jefferies, et al. (2022, Cerebral Cortex)
​Chiou, Cox, et al. (2022, Cerebral Cortex)
​Chiou et al. (2020, Cerebral Cortex)
Chiou & Lambon Ralph (2019, NeuroImage)
​Chiou et al. (2018, Cortex)

How does knowledge​ shape
​​multisensory perception?

The brain is constantly inundated by massive amount of messages from different senses, and it learns to integrate them. In this line of research, I study how the brain underpins the  'normal' type of multisensory integration that every healthy brain has, as well as the 'unusual' type of integration in synaesthesia. I aim to elucidate the role of conceptual knowledge in cross-modality interactions in both synaesthetic and neurotypical ​populations. Findings have been reported in:

Chiou (2025, Cortex)
​Chiou et al. (2018, Cognition)
​Chiou & Rich (2015, Perception)
Chiou & Rich (2014, Frontiers of Psy.)
Chiou et al. (2013, Cortex)
Chiou & Rich (2012, Perception)

​How do cognitive functions emerge as a results of brain connectivity?

I have been intrigued by this question for nearly a decade. I first began thinking seriously about the relationship between connectivity and function after reading Talia Konkle’s work on resting-state connectivity, which examined how long-range connectivity with distant brain regions may contribute to the emergence of category-selective regions in the visual cortex, such as areas preferentially responsive to small objects, large objects, and animals. The relationship between connectivity and a brain region’s functional tuning can also be understood by considering its position along macroscale gradients of cortical organisation. Daniel Margulies and colleagues’ influential 2016 paper on the principal gradient of cortical connectivity provided particularly compelling evidence for the close relationship between cognitive function, connectivity patterns, and spatial organisation across the cortical sheet. My current research builds on this perspective, examining how the functional specialisation of different cortical regions can be understood in relation to their connectivity and position within the brain’s macroscale architecture. If you are interested in this work or would like to discuss potential collaborations, please feel free to get in touch.