About — Justin O’Brien, PhD

Psychologist, vision scientist & AI consultant

I’m a cognitive scientist with 20+ years in academic research on visual perception and social cognition, formerly a Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Brunel University London. My research spanned face and expression recognition, ageing and emotion, and visual processing differences in conditions such as autism, using behavioural experiments, neuroimaging (fMRI/EEG) and computational tools like representational similarity analysis (RSA). Brunel profile.

What I do now

At OBrien.vision, I translate rigorous behavioural science into human-centred AI practice—evaluation protocols for computer-vision & multimodal models, human-in-the-loop audits, and interpretable reporting.

Typical engagements

  • Model evaluations combining user studies, psychophysics tasks & RSA analyses.
  • Human-in-the-loop testing to surface bias/brittleness before release.
  • Decision support—roadmaps, guardrails & exec-ready evidence.

Track record (selected)

  • Autism & facial motion: dynamic facial motion usage differences. PLOS ONE.
  • Ageing & emotion: connectivity shifts & negative expression recognition.
  • Concepts vs cues: disentangling low-level cues from emotion concepts.
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Credentials & affiliations

  • Senior Lecturer, Brunel University London (2002–2025).
  • Publications indexed on Google Scholar (visual neuroscience, developmental disorders).
  • Open-access outputs via BURA & PLOS ONE.

How we can work together

  • AI readiness & risk reviews
  • Evaluation design & psychophysics-style testbeds
  • Workshops / briefings on human-centred AI & interpretability
  • Embedded collaboration with product/data teams

Need a specific service sheet or speaking bio? Let me know.

Sources & references

Representative sources accessed Aug 2025: Brunel research pages, Google Scholar, open-access publications (PLOS, BURA). Links available on request.