ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Professor Gina Rippon is an international expert on brain-imaging techniques, and Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Aston Brain Centre, Aston University, Birmingham UK. She has a PhD in Psychophysiology from the University of London, and has held full-time research and teaching positions at the University of Warwick and at Aston University, as well as honorary positions at Imperial College, London; University of Wisconsin, Madison, USA and Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia. She is a Chartered member of the British Psychology Society and has served on two Government Advisory Bodies on the “Use of the Polygraph in Criminal Investigation and Personnel Screening”. She has served as President of the British Psychophysiology Society (now the British Association of Cognitive Neuroscience). In 2015, she was made an Honorary Fellow of the British Science Association for services to science communication.

With a background in psychology and physiology, she uses state-of-the-art brain imaging techniques such as MEG and fMRI to investigate the links between individual differences in brain activity and individual differences in behaviour. Her research covers both typical and atypical behaviour, including schizophrenia and developmental dyslexia. She currently works in the field of Autism Spectrum Disorders, where she is part of a team investigating abnormal patterns of brain connectivity.

Professor Gina Rippon

View her Aston University Profile

Brain Study - Illustration by Cornelia Li

Illustration by Cornelia Li. See review on Canada's National Post.

She also writes and speaks from a critical neuroscience perspective on the study of sex/gender differences in the brain. She is a member of the international NeuroGenderings Network, a transdisciplinary network of scholars examining issues in sex/gender research from multiple perspectives. Her work in this area debunks the myth that there is some kind of predetermined ‘essential’ difference between male and female brains, and shows how the perpetuation of this myth is used to explain all kinds of gender gaps and gender inequalities. She shows that differences in performance between males and females can arise from social and cultural influences that change the brain, and reports on research that shows how such social influences can be overcome. Her work in this area has been highlighted in TV programmes such as the BBC programmes “Horizon: Is Your Brain Male or Female?”; “Transgender Kids; Who Knows Best?”; “No More Boys And Girls: Can Our Kids Go Gender Free?”.

She is an outspoken critic of the ’neurotrash industry , the populist misuse of neuroscience research to misrepresent our understanding of the brain and, most particularly, to prop up outdated stereotypes. She has been widely cited in the media (Guardian, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail, Financial Times, The Sun) as well as on Thought for The Day and in Private Eye.

Several lectures by Professor Gina Rippon are available on YouTube.

View these on the
Presentations/Talks page.

Neuroscience Publications

Seymour, R.A., Rippon, G., Gooding-Williams, G., Schoffelen, J.M. and Kessler, K., 2018. Dysregulated Oscillatory Connectivity in the Visual System in Autism Spectrum Disorder. bioRxiv, p.440586.

Seymour, R.A., Wang, H., Rippon, G. and Kessler, K., 2018. Oscillatory networks of high-level mental alignment: A perspective-taking MEG study. NeuroImage, 177, pp.98-107.

Seymour, R.A., Rippon, G. and Kessler, K., 2017. The Detection of Phase Amplitude Coupling during Sensory Processing. Frontiers in neuroscience, 11, p.487.

Kessler, K., Seymour, R.A. and Rippon, G., 2016. Brain oscillations and connectivity in autism spectrum disorders (ASD): new approaches to methodology, measurement and modelling. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 71, pp.601-620.

Rippon, G., 2016. Chapter 22. Gamma abnormalities in autism spectrum disorders. In Autism Imaging and Devices (pp. 457-496). edited by Manuel F. Casanova, Ayman El-Baz, Jasjit S. Suri. CRC Press.

Rippon, Gina, Rebecca Jordan-Young, Anelis Kaiser, and Cordelia Fine.(2014) Recommendations for sex/gender neuroimaging research: key principles and implications for research design, analysis, and interpretation. Frontiers in human neuroscience 8 (2014): 650

McNab. F., Hillebrand, A., Swithenby, S., Rippon, G. (2012) Combining temporal and spectral information with spatial mapping to identify differences between phonological and semantic networks: a Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) approach. Frontiers in Language Sciences, 3: 1-12

Brunswick, N., Martin, G.N., Rippon, G. (2012) Early Cognitive Profiles of emergent readers: a longitudinal study. J. of Experimental Child Psychology 111(2): 268-285

Foley, E., Rippon, G., Thai, J., Longe, O. Senior, C., ( 2012) Dynamic Facial expressions evoke distinct activation in the Face Perception Network: a connectivity analysis study. J. of Cognitive Neuroscience, February 2012, Vol. 24, No. 2, Pages 507-520

Maratos, F., Senior, C., Mogg, K., Bradley, B.P., Rippon, G. (2012) Early gamma-band activity as a function of threat processing in the extrastriate visual cortex. Cognitive Neuroscience 3:1: 62-68.

Longe. Maratos, F.A., Gilbert, P., Evans, G., Volker, F., Rockliff, H., Rippon, G. (2010) Having a word with yourself: Neural Correlates of self-criticism and self-reassurance. NeuroImage 49(2): 1849-1856

Longe, O., Senior, C., Rippon, G. (2009) Lateral PFC and ventromedial PFC work as a dynamic integrated system: evidence from fMRI connectivity analysis Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21 (1): 141-154.

Maratos, F.A., Mogg, K., Bradley, B.P., Rippon, G., Senior, C. (2009) Coarse threat images reveal theta oscillations in the amygdala: A magnetoencephalography study. Cognitive, Affective and Behavioural Neuroscience, vol. 9, (2): 133-143.

Thai, J.N., Longe, O.A., Rippon, G. (2009) Disconnected brains: What is the role of fMRI in connectivity research? International Journal of Psychophysiology Volume 73, Issue 1, July 2009, Pages 27-32

Critical neuroscience of Gender Publications

Rippon, G., Jordan‐Young, R., Kaiser, A., Joel, D. and Fine, C., 2017. Journal of neuroscience research policy on addressing sex as a biological variable: Comments, clarifications, and elaborations. Journal of neuroscience research, 95(7), pp.1357-1359.

Rippon, G. (2016): The Trouble with Girls? : Why Plastic Brains aren’t Breaking through Glass Ceilings. The Psychologist: 29:918-923. https://docs.wixstatic.com/ugd/1e9e2d_eb10386b0a45480f97b64c443542e5a6.pdf?dn=Psychologist+-+The+trouble+with+Girls.pdf

Rippon, G. (2016) Blame the Brain: Science and Stereotypes; Essay in ‘Science: Not Just for Scientists. British Science Association http://www.britishscienceassociation.org/news/science-not-just-for-scientists-launched-by-the-british-science-association

Rippon, G. (2016) The Conversation: Feb. 9th 2016: Are Male and Female Brains Really Different? http://theconversation.com/are-male-and-female-brains-really-different-54092

Rippon, G. (2016) The Conversation: April 1st, 2016: Changing the face of autism: here come the girls . http://theconversation.com/changing-the-face-of-autism-here-come-the-girls-57000

Rippon, G. (2016) Hippocratic Post: April 11th, 2016: Autism in the 21st Century: missing the girls. http://www.hippocraticpost.com/mental-health/autism-21st-century-missing-girls/#more-1944

Rippon, G., (2015.) Greetings, Earthlings. New Scientist, 228(3050), p.9. https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn28584-a-welcome-blow-to-the-myth-of-distinct-male-and-female-brains/

Rippon, G. (2015) The Conversation: Jan, 16th, Making guys play with dolls won’t create an army of men working as carers. https://theconversation.com/making-guys-play-with-dolls-wont-create-an-army-of-men-working-as-carers-36267

Fine, Cordelia; Joel, Daphna; Jordan-Young, Rebecca; Kaiser, Anelis; Rippon, Gina (2015): Why Males ≠ Corvettes, Females ≠ Volvos, and Scientific Criticism ≠ Ideology: A Response to “Equal ≠ The Same: Sex Differences in the Human Brain”. figshare. https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.1321277.v1

Rippon, G. (2015) How Men and Women Think. https://iainews.iai.tv/articles/how-men-and-women-think-auid-606

Rippon, G. (2014). The Conversation.: August 15th Arguing over whether girls can’t or won’t study science stops us fixing the problem. https://theconversation.com/arguing-over-whether-girls-cant-or-wont-study-science-stops-us-fixing-the-problem-29725

Fine, Cordelia, Rebecca Jordan-Young, Anelis Kaiser, and Gina Rippon.(2013) Plasticity, plasticity, plasticity… and the rigid problem of sex. Trends in Cognitive sciences 17, no. 11 (2013): 550-551.