Workshop
CRBLM discussion: navigating the academic hiring process
August 17, 2022
Lecture
Connecting language learning and language evolution: The creation of a sign language in Nicaragua
August 18, 2022
Languages are highly patterned abstract systems, shared within communities of speakers. Where do their patterns come from, and why are some characteristics apparently universal across languages? The birth of a new, natural human language provides an opportunity to observe how such structure arises. We consider the case of Nicaraguan Sign Language (NSL), a young, urban sign language that emerged from within a community of children brought together in an educational setting in the 1970s. Originating in gestural communication among 50 children, NSL is a rich, natural language with over 1500 users today. By taking an apparent time approach, comparing present-day age cohorts, we can capture patterns of change in the linguistic structure of the language as it was transmitted over successive generations of learners. Read More
Lecture
Kevin R. Sitek (SoundBrain Lab, University of Pittsburgh)
July 12, 2022
Title: Subcortical pathways in the human auditory system
Abstract: The human auditory pathway is comprised of multiple subcortical nuclei en route to auditory cortex. Each of these auditory structures receives top-down auditory inputs as well as multisensory and context-dependent inputs from other sensory and cognitive brain regions (and vice versa). While these neural connections are crucial for human behaviors such as speech communication and music, most of our knowledge of subcortical auditory pathways comes from animal models. In this talk I will discuss my work mapping the human subcortical auditory system using ultra-high resolution functional MRI, diffusion MRI tractography, and anatomical MRI with post mortem and in vivo human datasets. Further, I will show recent and ongoing work characterizing auditory cortical connections with dorsal striatum and their contribution to human auditory category learning. Overall, I aim to expand beyond our cortical-centric view of the human auditory system by better understanding subcortical auditory connections and their contributions to auditory processing. Read More
Conference
CRBLM Scientific Day 2021
May 18, 2021
May 18, 2021
Scientific Day is an annual event that showcases the research interests of the Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music (CRBLM). The 2021 Scientific Day will be held online. The day will include a keynote address by Dr Aniruddh Patel, poster presentations, and an annual general assembly. Read More
Workshop
Pre-registering your study: Why, How, and What if?
December 09, 2020
Pre-registration is gaining popularity as a way to increase transparency and replicability. Pre-registration allows researchers to specify their research plans in advance, including hypotheses, sample, and planned analyses. Many journals, including Psychological Science (click here for the a list of journals), recognize preregistered research by awarding a Preregistered badge. Read More
Workshop
TMS workshop with Kate Watkins
May 15, 2019
Title: Stimulating speech: Auditory-motor interactions in production and perception
In my lab, we use non-invasive brain stimulation to explore auditory-motor interactions during speech perception and speech production. I will describe how transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) works and provide a number of examples of how we have used this method in combination with behaviour and other measures of brain function. Read More
Lecture
Sara Incera (Psychology, Eastern Kentucky University)
May 21, 2019
Title: The timing of the cognitive processes underlying bilingualism and the perception of foreign accents: Evidence from mouse tracking
The mouse-tracking paradigm allows researchers to better understand how cognitive processes unfold over time by recording participants’ responses using a computer mouse. In this talk, I will present a diverse set of cognitive experiments in which I used the mouse-tracking paradigm for data collection. Read More
Workshop
Mouse-tracking workshop with Sara Incera
May 22, 2019
Title: Creating and analyzing mouse-tracking experiments
The goal of this four-hour workshop is to create and analyze mouse-tracking experiments. During the first half of the workshop, participants will become familiar with the computer software MouseTracker (download here – only works on Windows os). Read More