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Hearing, Speech and Language
The Hearing, Speech and Language programme is concerned with the study of human language as a cognitive, computational, and neural system. The goal of our research is to explain how normal adults understand language. Most of the research focuses on how people can recognise words in spoken language, and on how we understand and represent the meanings of those words.
Our research uses techniques from experimental cognitive psychology, as well as new technologies for tracking the activity of the brain during language comprehension and production (fMRI, EEG, MEG). In our theoretical work we place emphasis on developing computational models of the cognitive processes involved in processing language. Much of the work also involves comparisons between different languages (cross-linguistic research) and studies of clinical populations. This latter group includes deaf patients fitted with a cochlear implant, and individuals with neuropsychological impairments.
The emphasis within the programme is on collaborative research between members of the group and other MRC scientists, typically from a cross-disciplinary perspective.