Muireann Irish

Professor Muireann Irish is an ARC Future Fellow and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Sydney's School of Psychology within the Brain & Mind Centre. Her research program focuses on cognitive neuroscience approaches to neurodegenerative disorders, with particular emphasis on frontotemporal dementia and Alzheimer's disease. She leads investigations into memory systems, social cognition, and motivational impairments across the dementia spectrum.

Her research examines neural substrates of cognitive functions using multimodal neuroimaging approaches, with core interests in autobiographical memory, future thinking, and the breakdown of semantic knowledge in dementia syndromes. Current work explores how disruptions in large-scale brain networks contribute to cognitive and behavioral changes in neurodegenerative conditions.

Analysis of Professor Irish's recent publications reveals consistent themes in dementia research: innovations in cognitive assessment tools, longitudinal characterization of disease trajectories, neural correlates of memory impairment, and cross-cultural investigations of dementia phenotypes. Her work integrates neuropsychological testing with advanced neuroimaging to identify early biomarkers of neurodegeneration.

Professor Irish has received significant recognition including:

• ARC Future Fellowship
• Fellow of the Royal Society of New South Wales (FRSN)

She currently supervises doctoral candidates and leads NHMRC-funded projects on early FTD diagnosis. Her laboratory at the Brain & Mind Centre collaborates internationally to translate basic neuroscience findings into clinical applications for dementia diagnosis and management.