Language comprehension is a complex cognitive function. We may not stop to think very often about what our brain is doing when we process language, but it is doing quite a lot. Individual words must be identified and their meanings retrieved from memory. This must be interpreted in light of the current context, and incorporated into a developing representation of the overall meaning of what is being read or said. This representation must be constantly updated as new information comes in. And, all this needs to happen very quickly, because new information generally comes in at a rate of a couple of words every second. To accomplish this, language comprehension relies on specialized neurolinguistic processes, like those involved in identifying words in a speech stream, as well as other cognitive functions, like attention.

Most research projects in the lab are focused on how language interacts with other cognitive processes. Current research topics include attention lapsing during language comprehension, the intersection of cognitive control and language comprehension processes, and how impairments in these processes impact cognition in disorders such as schizophrenia. The lab uses a variety of cognitive neuroscience methods to study questions related to these and other topics, particularly electrophysiological methods (EEG/ERPs) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS).

How does our brain draw upon cognitive control processes like goal maintenance, inhibition, and error monitoring to help us understand language? Can the qualities of the particular words and sentences being processed create different cognitive control demands during comprehension? How do individual differences in cognitive control influence how a person processes language? Do clinically-significant impairments in cognitive control impact language processing and comprehension?

This line of research investigates these and related questions about how language comprehension depends, in part, on cognitive control.

Selected Relevant Publications:

Cognitive Control Influences the Use of Meaning Relations during Spoken Language Comprehension

Effects of Working Memory Span on Processing Lexical Associations and Congruence in Spoken Discourse

Spared and Impaired Spoken Discourse Processing in Schizophrenia: Effects of Local and Global Language Context

Graded Expectations: Predictive Processing and the Adjustment of Expectations during Spoken Language Comprehension

Adaptation to Animacy Violations during Listening Comprehension

Most people are familiar with the phenomenon of "zoning out", but it might surprise you to know how often this occurs- an estimated 20-80% of time spent reading or listening!

This line of research seeks to examine several interrelated questions about how often and under what conditions readers/listeners lose focus on what they are reading/listening to, and the resulting impact on comprehension.

Selected Relevant Publications:

Sensitivity to Referential Ambiguity in Discourse: The Role of Attention, Working Memory and Verbal Ability

Language Context Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia: The Role of Attentional Engagement

I Must Have Missed That: Alpha-Band Oscillations Track Attention to Spoken Language

Non-invasive brain stimulation techniques such as transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) hold great promise as a means of enhancing cognitive functioning in disorders such as schizophrenia, there are many fundamental questions yet to be answered about its influence on neural processing and cognition.

This line of research is focused on identifying and testing open questions in need of basic science research, which may ultimately be translated into clinical research paradigms with real-world significance. Current projects in this line of work examine the impact of tDCS on neural oscillations related to cognitive control, attention and language comprehension.

Selected Relevant Publications:

Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) Enhances Behavioral and EEG Markers of Proactive Control

Using Prefrontal Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) to Enhance Proactive Cognitive Control in Schizophrenia

Translational cognitive science bridges "basic science" studies aimed at understanding how cognitive processes operate in healthy individuals with research that investigates how they are disrupted in clinical populations.

Translational work in the lab is primarily focused on better understanding cognitive processing in major mental health disorders such as schizophrenia, in collaboration with clinical researchers at UC Davis, Washington University in St. Louis, University of Chicago, University of Minnesota and University of Maryland. Schizophrenia is of particular interest in this line of work because impairments in cognitive control are a key feature of the disorder, which can impact attention and language comprehension processes.

Selected Relevant Publications:

Electrophysiological Correlates of Adaptive Control and Attentional Engagement in Patients with First Episode Schizophrenia and Healthy Young Adults

Language Context Processing Deficits in Schizophrenia: The Role of Attentional Engagement

Cognitive neuroscience is a rapidly evolving field, and many research techniques are in continuous development.

This line of methodological work is aimed at optimizing research methods for use in cognitive neuroscience studies in both healthy adult and clinical populations.

Selected Relevant Publications:

How Many Trials Does It Take to Get a Significant ERP Effect? It Depends

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: A Roadmap for Research, from Mechanism of Action to Clinical Implementation