Presenting Dr. Terri Scott!
CNRLab doctoral student Terri Scott successfully defended her dissertation, "Neural bases of phonological working memory" to a well-separated crowd of 5 (and a virtual crowd of 50) on Monday. Congratulations, Dr. Scott!
Five CNRLab presentations at ICPhS 2019
Scientists from the CNRLab presented their newest research in five talks at the 2019 International Congress of Phonetic Sciences in Melbourne, Australia. Download copies of our proceedings papers below:
Carter, Y.D., Lim, S.-J. & Perrachione, T.K. (2019). "Talker continuity facilitates speech processing independent of listeners’ expectations." 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Melbourne, August 2019).
Choi, J.Y. & Perrachione, T.K. (2019). "Rapid adaptation to talker-specific phonetic detail is disrupted by noninvasive brain stimulation." 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Melbourne, August 2019).
Kapadia, A.M. & Perrachione, T.K. (2019). "Processing costs associated with talker variability do not scale with number of talkers." 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Melbourne, August 2019).
Lim, S.-J., Qu, A., Tin, J.A.A., & Perrachione, T.K. (2019). "Attentional reorientation explains processing costs associated with talker variability." 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Melbourne, August 2019).
Scott, T.L., Haenchen, L., Dailiri, A., Chartove, J., Guenther, F.G., Perrachione, T.K. (2019). "Speech motor adaptation during perturbed auditory feedback is enhanced by noninvasive brain stimulation." 19th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (Melbourne, August 2019).
The language-familiarity effect
Did you know it's harder to recognize someone by the sound of their voice if they are speaking a foreign language?
In the new issue of The Nerve, the undergraduate journal published by the BU Mind and Brain Society, CNRLab undergraduate Michelle Njoroge writes about her research on the language-familiarity effect in talker identification.
Read Michelle's article.
Explore our research publications on the language-familiarity effect.
Language, working memory, and the brain at SfN 2018
Terri Scott, CNRLab member and PhD candidate in Neuroscience, presented her new research on functional convergence and divergence of the neurocomputational architectures for language and working memory at the recent meeting of the Society for Neuroscience in San Diego Terri discovered that just because there is functional overlap between two tasks in a particular brain area, that does not necessarily mean that they are supported by the same computational architectures in the underlying neural response.
Terri received a Trainee Professional Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience for this work.
Scott, T.L. & Perrachione, T.K. (2018). "Functional dissociation of language and working memory revealed by pattern analysis of subject-specific conjunction maps." 48th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience (San Diego, November 2018).
New NSF-funded study of musical training and auditory processing
The Perrachione Lab has been awarded a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to study whether formal musical training is associated with enhanced neural processing and perception of sounds, including speech in noisy backgrounds. Music forms an important part of our lives and is one of the few universals shared by all human cultures. This project will test the hypothesis that early musical exposure has benefits that extend beyond music to critical aspects of human communication, such as speech perception in noise.
The Perrachione Lab at BU is one center in an nationwide collaboration pursuing this project, led by Andrew Oxenham at the University of Minnesota, and including other centers at Purdue University, Carnegie Mellon University, and the University of Rochester.
Title: "NeuroDataRR. Collaborative Research: Testing the relationship between musical training and enhanced neural coding and perception in noise."
Project Number: 1840818
Read more information about this grant at the NSF.
New NIH-funded study of brain structure in dyslexia
The Perrachione Lab has been awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to study differences in brain anatomy in individuals with dyslexia. This project will study a collection of brain scans from over 1,200 children and adults with dyslexia or typical reading. Using these brain scans, we will determine whether any features of brain anatomy (such as morphology, morphometry, and cortical geometry) are related to reading ability or reading impairment.
Brain scans showing differences in gross cortical morphology of the temporal lobe. The top row shows a brain with a single convolution of Heschl's gyrus (H1); the bottom row shows a different brain with a dual convolution (reduplication) of this gyrus (H2). (PT, planum temporale). This study will examine wither this, or any other anatomical feature, is associated with development of reading skills.
Led by the Perrachione Lab at BU, a nation-wide team of collaborators are contributing to this project, including scientists at MIT, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston Children's Hospital, the University of Delaware, Northwestern University, and the University of Washington. This project is supported by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD).
Title: "Cortical development and neuroanatomical anomalies in developmental dyslexia."
Project Number: R03HD096098
Read more information about this grant on NIH RePORTER
Mapping clinical tests of language and working memory at SNL 2018
Terri Scott, CNRLab member and PhD candidate in Neuroscience, presented her new research on the brain bases of nonword repetition - an important clinical assessment of language skills - at the recent meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language in Quebec City. Terri discovered that the parts of the brain responsible for nonword repetition are also recruited for both language processing and working memory.
Scott, T.L., Dougherty, S.C., Choi, J.Y. & Perrachione, T.K. (2018). “Nonword repetition recruits distinct and overlapping nodes of language and working memory networks.” 10th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language (Quebec City, August 2018).
Talker Variability at ASA 2018 in Minneapolis
Scientists from the CNRLab presented two new research studies on perception and cognition of talker variability at the May 2018 of the Acoustical Society of America in Minneapolis, including the results from a Sargent Senior Thesis for Distinction completed by lab alumna Kristina Furbeck. Download copies of our presentations below:
Lim, S.-J., Tin, J.A.A. Shinn-Cunningham, B.G., & Perrachione, T.K. (2018). “Impact of talker adaptation on speech processing and working memory.” 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (Minneapolis, May 2018).
Furbeck, K.T., Thurston, E.J., Tin, J.A.A., & Perrachione, T.K. (2018). “Perceptual similarity judgments of voices: Effects of talker and listener language, vocal source acoustics, and time-reversal.” 175th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (Minneapolis, May 2018).
Decoding the brain in unprecedented detail
Areas of the brain active when listening to spoken words.
CNRLab scientists are using the new Siemens 3T Prisma scanner at the BU Cognitive Neuroimaging Center to study how the brain consistently recognizes speech in different contexts. Read more about our experiences with the new imaging center in this article from BU Today.
Dr. Perrachione at the new Siemens Prisma 3T MRI scanner at the BU Cognitive Neuroimaging Center.
(Photo by Mira Whiting Photogramphy.)
Three CNRLab presentations at CNS 2018
Scientists from the CNRLab will present three new studies at the 2018 Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society in Boston in March. See you there!
Impact of talker adaptation on speech processing and working memory.
Abstract | Poster
(Lim et al.)
Common recruitment of neural resources for phonological working memory regardless of behavioral demands.
Abstract | Poster
(Scott et al.)
Neural responses during procedural memory tasks are related to foreign language learning outcomes.
Abstract | Poster
(Perrachione et al.)
