Personal Statement
My research aims to shed light on the mechanisms engaged in language processing, and how these mechanisms arise during development. I investigate this line of research using neuroimaging techniques adapted for infants research as EEG and fNIRS.

The main research questions I address in my work is:

how does the human brain specifically interact with a particular language to shape the language processing system of each listeners/speakers?

To answer this question, I focus on the following research areas:

-Investigation of the origins of syntactic processing in development
-Understanding the role of prediction in online language processing
-Identification the cognitive bias of newborns when processing linguistic input

I am currently accepting / would be please to hear from PhD students

Research Overview
I am currently working on two projects:

Understanding the neural processes involved in word learning in typically developing children and children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD)

In this work, we aim to use passive listening tasks, and functional connectivity analysis (EEG and fNIRS) to understand the neural processes involved in word learning and find out why is it that some individual are less good at this task. Recent advances in neuroimaging techniques have substantially improved our understanding of the neural encoding of speech. However, our understanding of the neural and perceptual mechanisms that underlie language disorders is still limited. By measuring functional connectivity during learning, this work will allow us to investigate the relation between differences in word learning ability and neural differences in the online processing of typically developing children and children with DLD, and hence to understand the neural mechanisms that underlie DLD, with potential implications for diagnosis and intervention.

This work is founded by the ESRC through the LuCiD centre

The Babe with the predictive power

Error-based learning theories suggest that predictions play a key role from the earliest stages of language acquisition; yet existing studies have typically focused only on older age groups. As a result, there is currently limited evidence that prediction is a viable learning mechanism in infancy. This study targets the role of prediction in early word encoding to assess the viability of such a learning mechanism. To achieve this, we have adapted an adult EEG study focusing on syllabic prediction (Vidal et al., 2019) for an infant population of 9 months of age. We are using an oddball design featuring speech-like stimuli to check if deviant pseudo-word elicit a mismatch response, indicative of a prediction being falsify by perception. We are also carrying out a localizer task to determine the polarity, location and time window of the MMR in each individual infant.

This work has been accepted as a stage 1 Registered report in Developmental Science

In March 2024 will start my next founded project The Origins of Infant Word Learning (Leverhulme Trust)

If you are a student and are interested to hear more about any of those projects dont hesitate to contact me for potential internship/PhD.