First up in our SLHS Lab Spotlight Series is the Language and Brain Lab! 

The Language and Brain Lab (PI Dr. Emily Myers) is focused on how we perceive the speech signal in order to map it to meaning. That is, how do we take what we hear other people say and understand what it means, or even which words and speech sounds they said? The lab uses a variety of neuroimaging methods along with psycholinguistic tasks to understand both the neural and behavioral mechanisms that underlie this process. They work with people with and without language disorders to inform functional models of speech and language processing, and to understand how language processing breaks down.

Currently, the Language and Brain Lab’s main project is looking at the two hemispheres of the brain to better understand their roles in speech comprehension. In most right-handed people, the language areas of the brain are on the left side, so it has been the focus of much research and the right side of the brain has been understudied. They are conducting multiple different experiments with behavioral tasks, eyetracking, MRI, fMRI, and TMS to investigate the hemispheres’ roles in comprehending speech and identifying who is talking. The lab will compare different populations on these measures, including non-brain injured adults across the lifespan as well as people who have had a stroke or other brain injury to one side of the brain that may or may not have caused a language disorder.

The Language and Brain Lab PhD students are also conducting their own research projects, further exploring topics such as: 

• the use of phonemic cues vs context when in challenging listening environments
• adaptation to a specific talker’s speech with others talking in the background
• accent adaptation in clear vs noisy conditions
• the effects of sleep and fatigue levels in people with aphasia

A fun fact about the Language and Brain lab is that their members share a love for cooking, baking, and sweet treats. They swap recipes, bring baked goods to share at their meetings, and may offer you some candy from their Halloween cauldron year-round if you stop by the lab to say hello!

You can follow the lab on instagram @uconn.lab.lab!