Graduate student, Psychology

Graham is now a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Rotman Research Institute At Baycrest Centre, Toronto.

I’m a fifth-year PhD student in the Cognition and Perception program within NYU’s Department of Psychology. My research examines the brain systems that support language and memory, asking questions such as how do we retrieve and combine the meanings of words in language comprehension? And how do we select words that convey an intended meaning during speech production? I’m also interested in how speech may change in disorders and diseases, such as persistent stuttering and Alzheimer’s disease, and how these changes may be explained by, and help inform, neurocognitive accounts of language and memory.

To approach these questions, my research uses multimodal electrophysiological and neuroimaging methods, including magnetoencephalography (MEG) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). This is done alongside behavioral methods such as self-paced reading and eye-tracking, insights from computational models (e.g., large language models like GPT-2), and machine learning methods applied to neuroscientific data. My ongoing research uses concurrent MEG and eye-tracking to study visual word recognition as we naturally move our eyes while reading, asking how visual input maps onto meanings stored in memory (i.e., individual word meanings) and leads to the composition of more complex meanings from word combinations (e.g., in whole phrases and sentences). By simultaneously recording eye movements and MEG data, I am able to relate fixations on individual words to the corresponding brain activity, localized to the surface of each individual’s cortex with anatomical MRIs.

Prior to joining NYU’s PhD program, I earned a Bachelor of Science in Neuroscience from Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada. As an undergraduate, I contributed to studies examining EEG indicators of second language acquisition and MEG studies of picture naming and conversation. After graduating I spent three years as a Research Assistant in the Neuroscience of Language Lab at NYU Abu Dhabi, where I conducted MEG and MRI research while also overseeing much of the day-to-day operation of the university’s MEG facilities. During the Summer of 2022, I was a PhD Intern at IBM Research, where I examined speech indicators of cognitive decline in mild cognitive impairment and pre-diagnosis Alzheimer’s disease.

Contact Email • CV • Twitter• Personal Webpage

Publications

  • Gwilliams, L., Flick, G., Marantz, A., Pylkkänen, L., Poeppel, D., & King, J.R. (Submitted) MEG-MASC: A high-quality magneto-encephalography dataset for evaluating natural speech processing. [Preprint]
  • Orpella, J., Flick, G., Assaneo, M., F., Pylkkänen, L., Poeppel, D., & Jackson, E., S. (Submitted) Global motor inhibition precedes stuttering events. [Preprint]
  • Flick, G., Abdullah, O., & Pylkkänen, L. (2021). From letters to composed concepts: A magnetoencephalography study of reading. Human Brain Mapping, 42(15), 5130-5153. http://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25608
  • Flick, G. & Pylkkänen, L. (2020). Isolating syntax in natural language processing: MEG evidence for an early contribution of left posterior temporal cortex. Cortex, 127, 42-57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.01.025
  • Tremblay, A., Flick, G., Elliot, C., Hill, L., Meeker, S., Asp, E., & Newman, A.J. (2019). Using free, unscripted conversation with synchronized neuroimaging data in linguistic inquiry. In Tsedryk, A. & Doe, C. The description, measurement and pedagogy of words (58-79). Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
  • Flick, G.*, Oseki, Y.*, Kaczmarek, A., Al Kaabi M., Marantz, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2018). Building words and phrases in the left temporal lobe. Cortex, 106, 213-236. (* indicates equal contribution). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2018.06.004

Presentations: Slides

  • Orpella, J., Flick, G., Assaneo, F., & Jackson, E. (2022) Global Motor Inhibition Precedes the Initiation of Stuttered Speech. 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. Philadelphia, USA.
  • Jackson, E., Orpella, J., Flick, G.,& Assaneo, F. (2022) Temporal dynamics of stuttered speech. Technical Session, Joint World Congress on Stuttering and Cluttering. Montreal, Canada.
  • Pylkkänen, L. & Flick, G. (2021) Visual word form recognition meets conceptual combination at 200 ms. Special Symposium “Recognizing Words in Context”, Meeting of the Experimental Psychology Society (UK).
  • Flick, G., Abdullah, O., & Pylkkänen, L. (2020) An MEG study of composition and relational structure in minimal phrases. The 33rd Annual CUNY Human Sentence Processing Conference. Amherst, USA (asynchronous presentation).
  • Asp, E., Tremblay, A., Flick, G., & Newman, A. J. (2019) CForests in the trees: Using conditional inference random forests to explore MEG data in a picture-naming task. 20th International Science of Aphasia Conference. Rome, Italy.
  • Flick, G. & Pylkkänen, L. (2019) An MEG & fMRI investigation of noun-noun compounding. Data- blitz Presentation at the 2019 NYU Abu Dhabi Neuroscience of Language Conference. Abu Dhabi, UAE.
  • Tremblay, A., Asp, E., Flick, G., & Newman, A. J. (2016) Spatiotemporal correlates of picture naming: An MEG Study. 17th International Clinical Phonetics and Linguistics Association Conference. Halifax, Canada.
  • Flick, G., Tremblay, A., & Newman, A.J. (2015) The cortical dynamics of speech production in simple and complex picture naming tasks. 38th Annual Science Atlantic Psychology Conference. Fredericton, Canada.

Presentations: Posters

  • Flick, G., & Ostrand, R., (2023) Automatically calculated lexical and sentential context features of connected speech predict cognitive impairment. 2023 International Neuropsychological Society Annual Meeting. San Diego, USA.
  • Flick, G., & Pylkkänen, L. (2022) Examining visual word recognition and composition in natural reading with eye movements: A co-registered MEG and eye-tracking study. 14th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. Philadelphia, USA.
  • Jackson, E.S., Orpella, J., Flick, G., & Assaneo, F. (2022) Elevated global response inhibition underlies stuttered speech. 8th International Conference on Speech Motor Control. Groningen, Netherlands.
  • Flick, G., & Pylkkänen, L. (2022) A co-registered magnetoencephalography and eye-tracking study of natural reading. Leading Edge Workshop on Co-registration. Tampa, USA.
  • Flick, G., & Pylkkänen, L. (2022) A co-registered magnetoencephalography and eye-tracking study of natural reading. 29th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. San Francisco, USA.
  • Flick, G., Assaneo, F., Orpella, J., Jackson, E.S. (2020) Temporal dynamics of stuttered speech. 12th International Seminar on Speech Production. Providence, USA (conducted virtually).
  • Flick, G., Assaneo, F., Orpella, J. & Jackson, E.S. (2020) Examining predictors of stuttered versus fluent speech prior to vocalization with magnetoencephalography. 12th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language (conducted virtually).
  • Flick, G., Abdullah, O., & Pylkkänen, L. (2020) From letters to complex concepts: A magnetoencephalography study of reading. 12th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language (conducted virtually).
  • Flick, G., Abdullah, O., & Pylkkänen, L. (2019) Exploring the neural correlates of composition and relational stucture: Evidence from MEG. Dartmouth Center for Cognitive Neuroscience 2019 Summer Workshop: Semantic Processing and Semantic Knowledge. Hanover, USA.
  • Oyama, D., Miyamoto, M., Adachi, Y., Higuchi, M., Flick, G., Marantz, A., & Uehara, G. (2018) A real-time signal processing platform for magnetoencephalography. 21st International Conference on Biomagneticism. Philadelphia, USA.
  • Flick, G. & Pylkkänen, L. (2017) In search of syntax: The case of English post-nominal modification. 9th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. Baltimore, USA.
  • Flick, G., Kaczmarek, A., Oseki, Y., Marantz, A., & Pylkkänen, L. (2016) Lexical access feeds composition: Temporal modulation of combinatory LATL activity according to lexical access demands. 8th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Neurobiology of Language. London, UK.