Language function and dysfunction lab

At the Language Function and Dysfunction Lab, we study the psychology, neuropsychology, and neurobiology of language in healthy individuals and in individuals with brain damage.

Our approach is bi-directional. On the one hand, we use models from cognitive neuroscience to better understand language function in neurological populations with the goal of contributing to the development of novel diagnostic tools and methods to improve language capacity in patients. On the other hand, we use observations of the breakdown of language and communicative abilities following brain insult to obtain unique insights informative for cognitive (neuro)science models.

We have a strong focus on language production (because, of course, you can’t do it all!), but are also interested in comprehension and, especially, the intersection between production and comprehension. Most of our work is based on behavioural measures, electrophysiology, diffusion-weighted imaging, and non-invasive brain stimulation.

We are also part of the Adaptive Language for Healthy Brain and Society.

Looking for an internship? Contact us!

News

Check our work at SNL 2021!

We will be again at SNL this year (from our homes). Follow the links for more. Matteo will present his work on semantic and phonological context effects using picture-word interference and EEG.

See you virtually at IWOLP 2021!

We are excited about participating in and presenting at the International Workshop on Language Production this year (from our homes). Follow the links for more (links will be updated soon).

See you virtually at SNL 2020!

We are excited about attending SNL this year (from our homes). Follow the links for more. Check Joanna’s poster for exciting findings on the temporal lobe white matter in humans vs chimps.

Check our work at Science of Aphasia 2019 in Rome

We are very excited to present at Science of Aphasia. Click on the links to see more. We will update the pages to include more info later. Joanna will give a talk on comparative neuroanatomy of the posterior temporal lobe at the white matter level: chimps vs humans!

Come see us at SNL 2019 in Helsinki!

We will be presenting lots of interesting stuff at SNL this year. Click on the links to see more. We will update the pages to include more info later.

Recent Work

An fMRI study of inflectional encoding in spoken word production: Role of domain-general inhibition

A major issue concerning inflectional encoding in spoken word production is whether or not regular forms (e.g., past tense walked) are encoded by rule application and irregular forms (e.g., swam) by retrieval from associative memory and inhibition of the regular rule. We used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine …

The electrophysiology of language production

In the past decade, the well-established psycholoinguistics tradition of behavioural measures to study language production has been increasingly complemented with electrophysiological investigations. As a direct measure of net neuronal activity, the electrophysiological signal has excellent temporal resolution, which is critical for …

Cognitive impairment after a stroke in young adults: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Information about cognitive functioning is vital in the management of stroke, but the literature is mostly based on data from individuals older than 50 years of age who make up the majority of the stroke population. As cognitive functioning is subject to change due to ageing, it is unclear whether such cognitive …

Validity of chronometric TMS for probing the time-course of word production: a modified replication

In the present study, we used chronometric TMS to probe the time-course of 3 brain regions during a picture naming task. The left inferior frontal gyrus, left posterior middle temporal gyrus, and left posterior superior temporal gyrus were all separately stimulated in 1 of 5 time-windows (225, 300, 375, 450, and 525 ms) from picture …

Brain areas critical for naming: a systematic review and meta-analysis of lesion-symptom mapping studies

Lesion-symptom mapping (LSM) studies have revealed brain areas critical for naming, typically finding significant associations between damage to left temporal, inferior parietal and inferior fontal regions and impoverished naming performance. However, specific subregions found in the available literature vary. Hence, the aim of this …

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