Betina Ip

I am broadly interested in the influence of the environment on brain function. This interaction has been studied in neuroscience through investigating how sensory experience affects visual development. What supports experience dependent learning in early childhood? Can we facilitate learning in adults by understanding neuroplasticity?

My lab attempts to answer to such questions using advanced multimodal brain imaging, especially MR Spectroscopy, behavioural measures and digital technology, including virtual reality.

Our experimental model is the human binocular visual system. If binocular visual experience is abnormal in childhood, a condition called amblyopia can occur that permanently reduces vision in one eye. We want to understand if controlled visual experiences can rescue amblyopic vision in adulthood, and if these changes in behaviour can be related to the brain. Such brain to behaviour relationships could pinpoint factors underlying adult neuroplasticity, and generate new avenues for treating vision disorders that are currently untreatable.

Ultimately, our research can contribute to a better understanding of how experience makes us who we are, and identify ways to harness cutting edge neuroscience and digital technology to improve health.

About me

I read for my DPhil on attentional modulation of binocular vision at St John’s College, Oxford. I then worked on fine-scale representations of binocular disparity in the human brain at the Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics as a postdoc. In 2020, I was awarded a Royal Society Dorothy Hodgkin Research Fellowship and moved to the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. I joined Jesus College in 2022 as a Hugh Price Fellow in Neuroscience.

Positive Research Culture & Public Engagement

Research culture is important to me. I am a mentor for the BIPOC STEM network, supporting ethnically diverse students at the University; I facilitate women’s career advancement as part of the Women in Clinical Neurosciences committee, and I have co-led the WIN Centre's Early Career Researcher's group (2020-2022) to enhance researchers' careers. I have also authored a children's picture book on neuroscience featuring my daughter and myself (as an owl).