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.

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.

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.

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.

Jordi Martorell

Visiting PhD Student

I am a PhD student at the Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL) and currently visiting student at the Language Cycles group. In my PhD thesis, I investigate how neural activity tracks syntactic information during language comprehension. Here I will focus on the role of periodicity in speech to better understand the underlying transient or oscillatory mechanism behind these neural tracking responses.

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).

Chih Yeh

PhD Student (Rotation)

I am a PhD student of Max Planck School of Cognition. Currently, I am doing my lab rotation in the Language Cycles team. In my previous researches, I used EEG, and behavioral measurements to investigate the neural mechanisms of language acquisition and language processing, and examine how the interhemispheric interactions modulate functional lateralization.

Johannes Gereons

Student Assistant

I am currently studying my master’s degree at the University of Leipzig. Before that, I completed my bachelor’s degree at the University of Bielefeld in Linguistics and German as a Second Language. I am excited to be part of the language cycles research group and to gain experience within the fields of cognitive neuroscience and computational linguistics.

Paula Baer

Student Assistant

I am a student of linguistics at the university of Leipzig, currently in the Bachelor programme. I am interested in psycholinguistics and neuroscience. I am eager to learn more about these topics and to be part of the active research in the language cycles group.