M-BIC Language Lab
The Language Lab aims at understanding cognitive and brain mechanisms underlying language and language development. Our lab is part of the Maastricht Brain Imaging Center (M-BIC) founded by the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience (FPN/UM) at Maastricht University. We investigate neural transformations of auditory (speech perception) and visual (reading, object perception) signals into meaningful messages and of thoughts and images into speech plans (speech production). Furthermore we investigate the formation and fine-tuning of these transformations during typical and anomalous language development (dyslexia).
Our research employs tailored psychophysical paradigms for adults and children with and without language disorders, combined with measurements of brain activity at high temporal (EEG), spatial (fMRI at 3T, 7T) and spatio-temporal (ECoG) resolution. We zoom into underlying brain mechanisms by analyzing our data using advanced analysis techniques including multivariate EEG/fMRI pattern analysis, functional connectivity and fMRI ‘encoding’ analysis. Moreover we assess individual brain-behavior relations by linking these brain measures to different types of behavioral measures including on-line task performance, real-time MRI of vocal tract gestures and cognitive and reading skills.
Researchers
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Mario Archila-Meléndez
Ph.D. StudentLanguage perception, Epilepsy, Functional brain surgery, Brain-computer interfaces
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Milene Bonte
Head, ProfessorSpeech perception, Language development, Reading, Dyslexia
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Alexandra Emmendorfer
Ph.D. StudentFormal and temporal predictions, cortical and subcortical interactions in reading and spoken language...
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Francesco Gentile
Assistant Professormultisensory integration, speech production, attentional modulation in sematic processing
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Bernadette Jansma
ProfessorLanguage production, Relation of perception and language, Information selection
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Manli Zhang
Ph.D. StudentReading development, Dyslexia, Crossmodal integration, Bilingualism
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Students
Cisca Baars
Master Developmental Psychology, Maastricht University
Dana Hermsen
Master Neuropsychology, Maastricht University
Anemoon Jeeninga
Student Assistant
Master Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University
Laura Kratz
Master Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University
Alex Zarnoch
Master Cognitive Neuroscience, Maastricht University
Alumni
Mart Bles
CRM and data specialist, Buurkracht, ‘s Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
João Correia
Postdoctoral researcher, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language, San Sebastian, Spain.
Job van der Hurk
MRI Data Analyst, Scannexus, Maastricht, Netherlands.
Boukje Habets
Postdoctoral researcher, University of Hamburg, Germany.
Anke Hammer
Psychologist and Researcher, Department of Psychiatry, University of Erlangen, Erlangen, Germany.
Inge Timmers
Postdoctoral researcher, Stanford University, Stanford, United States of America.
Gonny Willems
Managing Director – Maastricht, Working on Europe, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Gojko Žarić
Reporting Analyis, Booking.com, Amsterdam, NL.
In memoriam: Leo Blomert (1952 – 2012)
Leo Blomert has been the founding chair of the Cognitive Neuroscience Department at the Faculty of Psychology and Neuroscience… read more