NYUAD MEG
Research at the NEUROSCIENCE OF LANGUAGE LAB explores how the ability to use natural language is implemented in the brain. In collaboration with UAE University, the NYUAD lab seeks to answer questions about how the brain mediates the most critical aspects of our communication system, and which properties of the mind/brain facilitate the seemingly effortless processing of language, ranging from the analysis of speech sounds to the construction of meaning.
By integrating linguistic theory and psycholinguistic models with observed neural activity in the brain, the lab’s experiments are set up to test specific hypotheses and linguistic models by comparing the brain’s response to different sorts of stimuli with millisecond-level accuracy. Most of the existing research in this field has been based on English language study; therefore, the lab’s location in Abu Dhabi provides researchers with access to speakers of Arabic – a language of special importance for the study of the neural correlates of linguistic representations and computations – as well as many other languages, such as Hindi, Bengali, and Tagalog.The lab uses advanced magnetoencephalography (MEG) imaging technology, a cutting-edge, non-invasive technique, and will also be supplemented by EEG and MRI. The lab is the Abu Dhabi site of the Neuroscience of Language Lab (NeLLab).
Instead, we are pioneering the integration of psycholinguistic questions with the neuromagnetic measures of MEG. Building on results in visual word recognition, lab members are now studying the neurocomputational stages of processing morphologically complex words and sentences, and adding auditory language comprehension as an object of research.
Instead, we are pioneering the integration of psycholinguistic questions with the neuromagnetic measures of MEG. Building on results in visual word recognition, lab members are now studying the neurocomputational stages of processing morphologically complex words and sentences, and adding auditory language comprehension as an object of research.
