People
Dr. Lars Meyer
Group Leader
I am a cognitive neuroscientist trained as a linguist at the universities of Hanover, DE, Groningen, NL, Joensuu, FI, and Potsdam DE. I am interested in the electrophysiology of language. Specifically, I investigate the role of periodic activity—so-called neural oscillations—in sentence comprehension. I employ neuroimaging (e.g., electro– and magnetoencephalography, functional and structural MRI) on a range of populations (e.g., developmental, healthy, aging, and clinical).
Chia-Wen Lo, PhD
Postdoctoral Researcher
I obtained my Ph.D. degree in the area of neurolinguistics from the University of Michigan. I am interested in human sentence processing by using brain image tools such as electroencephalography (EEG) and investigating neural signals from computational approaches. My dissertation investigates how compositional processes are carried out by low-frequency neural oscillations, which have been recently correlated with the processing of hierarchical structures. My current research examines the time and frequency domain analysis of annotated corpora and aims to see how periodicity is reflected in sentence structure across languages.
Maja Linke
Postdoctoral Researcher
I am a cognitive scientist with a background in computer science and quantitative linguistics. My research focuses on how learning from structured distributed codes shapes the way people process, organize and produce speech sequences. I am particularly interested in the role of learnability and uncertainty in the structure and distribution of information. In my current project, I explore how variable error in highly predictable, regularly recurring aspects of signals can help speakers manage uncertainty and align their expectations in time.
Katharina Menn
PhD Student
I am interested in first language acquisition. In my project, I investigate how the neural response to natural language develops as children gain knowledge about their native language. For this, I combine electrophysiological recordings with measures from computational linguistics.
Yulia Lamekina
PhD Student
My educational background is in linguistics (Moscow State University, B.Sc) and cognitive neuroscience (National University HSE, M.Sc). My current research project is related to delta-oscillations and their possible role in chunking and syntactic analysis of a sentence. We investigate the possibility of neural entrainment to a particular frequency by utilising prosodic cues, which would further influence the comprehension of a syntactic ambiguity. My other research interests include lexical and semantic perception, language localisation and functioning in bilinguals, modelling the language function via computational neuroscience.
Lorenzo Titone
PhD Student
My educational background is in Psychological Sciences (Università degli Studi di Milano-Bicocca, BSc.) and in Cognitive Neuroscience (Maastricht University, MSc.) My current research interests are on neural oscillatory dynamics, entrainment, statistical learning, and predictive processing. During my PhD at the Language Cycles research group I am focussing on the effects of temporal predictions in language processing using advanced non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as magnetoencephalography (MEG).
Lena Henke
PhD Student
Before coming to Leipzig, I was trained in cognitive science and clinical linguistics and initially joined the Language Cycles team for my Master’s thesis. In my research, I investigate how low-frequent intrinsic activity of the brain temporally constraints perception and thereby influences language comprehension. Specifically, I am interested in the upper limit of this constraint taking into account inter- and intraindividual variability.
Jule Nabrotzky
PhD Student
I’ve studied linguistics on the Bachelor level at the CAU Kiel (Germany) & Åbo Akademi (Finland) and obtained my Master’s degree in Phonetics at Lund University (Sweden). I am interested in the neural processing of spoken speech in interactive contexts, especially the processing of prosodic contours and the multimodal coordination of speech. As part of my PhD in the Language Cycles group I’m using neuroimaging to investigate entrainment to acoustic and gestural cues. Specifically, I’m exploring how the rhythmicity of these speech cues helps with the predictive timing of turn-taking in conversation.
Caroline Duchow
Lab Manager
I studied linguistics at the universities of Leipzig and Erfurt. While conducting an internship and writing my Master’s thesis at the Max-Planck-Institute, my interest in neurolinguistics grew. As the lab manager of this research group, I hope to gain more insights into the work of scientists and support them wherever I can.