Brodie Mangan

Cognitive Psychologist/Neuroscientist; PhD Researcher; University of Stirling

About

Hello there! I'm Brodie. My research sits at the intersection of physical activity, cognitive fatigue, and brain function. I'm interested in how sustained cognitive effort degrades working memory and executive function, and whether physical activity and environmental interventions can buffer or reverse that decline. These questions matter most during development, when the brain is most responsive to intervention and the consequences of getting it wrong are greatest.

My PhD began with the applied question of whether green space exposure and exercise improve cognitive outcomes. I quickly found that the field lacked the methodological foundations to answer it: most studies never verified genuine fatigue before claiming restoration, and induction paradigms were confounded. Rather than building on unstable ground, I went back to first principles.

The result is a self-directed research programme spanning theory, tools, and empirical validation. I developed a neurophysiological framework linking active cognitive fatigue to the breakdown of working memory's oscillatory architecture, built WAND — an open-source adaptive N-back suite that resolves the confounds I identified — and am now running an EEG study testing these predictions directly. In parallel, I wrote a critique of the nature-cognition literature's departure from its own theoretical requirements.

Before academia, I served as a paratrooper in the Parachute Regiment and spent over a decade as a personal trainer. I've seen cognitive performance degrade under real-world stress and physical demands, and I bring that practical understanding to the questions I study in the lab.