The neural underpinnings of talent
with Dr Francesca Branzi
Summary
This study explores how the neural underpinnings of implicit learning and curiosity differ in autistic populations. We investigate morphological differences in the dorsal striatum by analysing sMRI scans of autistic and neurotypical children and adults using voxel-based morphometry. Data analysis is currently ongoing. This page will be updated once the findings are published.
Significance
Given that around 700,000 people in the UK and 80 million worldwide are autistic, it’s striking how little we know about special interests. They are a core feature of autism and are thought to be a source of enthusiasm and talent. This study, along with our other ongoing research, will help to define and better understand special interests, and explore their role in information-seeking and learning across the lifespan. A clearer understanding of special interests could help refine support strategies in educational and professional settings by recognising their role in motivation, learning, and cognitive development. This research may also inform interventions that leverage special interests to enhance engagement and skill acquisition, providing a more tailored approach to supporting autistic individuals throughout their lives.
What are Special Interests?
with Professor Westermann and Dr Calum Hartley
Summary
Autistic people often have very focused, intense interests—known as special interests or obsessions—but we still don’t fully understand what they are. This study uses semi-structured interviews to explore how these interests develop, how they make people feel, and how they change over time. Our aim is to define what makes special interests unique, and how they differ from the interests of non-autistic people. Data collection is complete, and analysis is currently in progress. This page will be updated once the findings are published.
Significance
Given that around 700,000 people in the UK and 80 million worldwide are autistic, it’s striking how little we know about special interests. They are a core feature of autism and are thought to be a source of enthusiasm and talent. This study, along with our other ongoing research, will help to define and better understand special interests, and explore their role in information-seeking and learning across the lifespan. A clearer understanding of special interests could help refine support strategies in educational and professional settings by recognising their role in motivation, learning, and cognitive development. This research may also inform interventions that leverage special interests to enhance engagement and skill acquisition, providing a more tailored approach to supporting autistic individuals throughout their lives.
The hippocampus and speech memories
by Dr Emmanuel Biau and Dr Francesca Branzi
Summary
I worked as a research assistant on Dr Biau’s project “How does the hippocampus integrate audiovisual theta synchrony in speech to form new memories?”. The project explores how the formation of episodic speech memories is affected by multisensory speech perception. In the experiment I worked on, we imaged the hippocampus and sensory areas of the neocortex during an audiovisual perception task using fMRI. The hypothesis?: The role of audiovisual synchrony on theta oscillations extends to speech domains and enhances the association of coherent information during speech encoding. The study is still ongoing.
Significance
In addition to the new experimental paradigm and hypothesis this pioneering study introduces, it also has major implications for language development and communication research as synchronous lip and throat movement and auditory stimulus is a critical mechanism of phoneme acquisition. Neuroatypical populations with atypical hippocampal development or theta rhythms may not benefit from this entrainment mechanism and present with poorer speech memory, or poorer episodic memory more generally. One such population is the autistic population, where impaired theta modulation has been linked to deficits in working memory and semantic mapping.
Read more about the project here: https://shorturl.at/Km7FM
Cross-language influence during L2 word processing
with Dr Francesca Branzi, Dr Ya-Ning Chang and Professor Theodora Alexopoulou
Summary
I worked as a research assistant to Dr Branzi on the project "The impact of L2 proficiency on cross-language influence during L2 word processing". The project investigates how Chinese native speakers with English as a second language (L2) manage interference from their first language (L1), Chinese, when processing English words. We hypothesised that the more advanced English speakers would be better at inhibiting Chinese while reading English. To test this, we asked Chinese speakers with varying levels of English proficiency to decide if pairs of English words were related in meaning. Some of these English word pairs had repeated characters in their Chinese equivalent and were expected to introduce semantic-phonological interference. Interestingly, the preliminary results showed that the more fluent someone was in English, the more their Chinese language system was activated. The second part of the project is still ongoing.
Abstract
We investigated the relationship between L2 proficiency and the language control strategies employed during L2 word-processing to cope with cross-language interference. Our main hypothesis is that proactive inhibition of the non-target language (L1) is the best cognitive strategy to optimise L2 performance when L1 and L2 lexical/phonological representations do not overlap. This strategy should be especially implemented by L2 high proficient individuals. We tested a group of native speakers of Chinese (L1) with various levels of proficiency in L2 English in a task that required to decide whether English words presented in pairs were related in meaning or not. Crucially, L2 learners were unaware of the fact that half of the words concealed a character repetition when translated into Chinese which allowed us to measure the activation of L1 phonological representations. Contrary to our predictions, we found that higher proficiency correlated with higher L1 activation.
Significance
This study furthers our understanding of the cognitive architecture of bilingualism by highlighting how the brain manages competing language systems. Rather than simply inhibiting the first language (L1), greater second language (L2) proficiency may reflect increased cognitive flexibility, and allow bilinguals to efficiently manage the simultaneous activation of both languages.