My research is interested in speech production and perception, and the interactions between these at both the behavioural and the neural level. To study this, I use sensorimotor integration tasks such as the altered auditory feedback paradigm, in which speakers unconsciously correct for artificially induced ‘errors’ in their speech auditory feedback (the sound of their voice as they are speaking). I am interested in how the brain compares the intended or predicted speech feedback with that produced, in order to adjust our productions so they remain accurate. I am also interested in how perceptual experience of other voices can shape our intended speech targets, over both longer timescales (e.g. development of accents) as well as at shorter timescales (e.g. phonetic convergence between interlocutors during a single interaction).

I currently hold a Leverhulme Trust Early Career fellowship within Matt Davis’ group for a project entitled “Testing prediction as a unified framework for speech production and perception”. This will investigate if predictions during speech production are implemented in the brain in the same way as for speech perception, as proposed in predictive coding and active inference accounts of perception and action. Specifically, I will use decoding methods on multivariate fMRI data to investigate whether responses in auditory cortex to the self-voice during speech production represent prediction errors. 

For more information on my research, please visit my personal website.