Speaker
Dr. Anna Mai
Max Planck Institute
Anna Mai is a postdoctoral researcher in the Language and Computation in Neural Systems research group at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen, the Netherlands. Prior to joining the Max Planck Institute, Anna received a PhD in Linguistics and Cognitive Science from the University of California, San Diego for investigation of the neural basis of phonological alternations using intracranial electroencephalography (EEG). Alongside this neuroimaging work, Anna has also worked on syllable structure in English and Ja’a Kumiai, the computational properties of tone and vowel harmony systems, and the formal properties of phonological theories. At the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Anna continues this synthesis of linguistic theory and cognitive neuroscience, using magnetoencephalography (MEG) to study the relationship between speech statistics and linguistic structure in the neural response to spoken language.

Event Details
Spoken language comprehension requires abstraction of linguistic information from speech, but the links between auditory and linguistic speech processing in the brain remain poorly understood. In this talk, I will discuss work showcasing how the specificity of phonological patterns can be leveraged to better understand these links, as well as work highlighting the importance of bridging intracranial recordings with other neuroimaging literatures. In particular, I will discuss how some recent intracranial work has substantiated long-standing theoretical claims about the structure of phonological contrasts, their relationship to speech acoustics, and their specificity to particular languages. I will additionally show how aspects of this work have been validated in a less-invasive neuroimaging context and discuss how linguistic theory and neuroimaging can better help us understand the neurophysiological origins of structured variability within and across languages.

Registration Link/ Event Page
Delivery Mode: Via Zoom
Zoom Meeting ID: 9341575 2127
Passcode: Lin2025
Zoom Meeting Link:
https://cuhk.zoom.us/j/93415752127?pwd=bhWaGtD4p1aOEeQUWWCz7BbfLjf2YV.1

Enquires
Tel : (852) 3943 1516
Fax : (852) 2603 7755
Email : lin@cuhk.edu.hk
Department’s Website: https://ling.cuhk.edu.hk/news-events/departmental-seminars/
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