MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit
Lucy MacGregor
Research Staff
lucy.macgregor@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk
01223
Programme Leader: Matt Davis
- My research seeks to understand the cognitive and neural mechanisms of speech comprehension. A key challenge for listeners is comprehending the intended meaning of a speaker given that many of the words we use have multiple meanings (e.g. "ace" can refer to a tennis serve or to a playing card, and is also a synonym for "brilliant"). I am using EEG/MEG and behavioural methods to test cognitive theories and learn more about the brain networks that support successful language comprehension, and to understand why comprehension sometimes fails.
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Publications
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Su, Y., MacGregor, L.J., Olasagasti, I. & Giraud, A-L. (2023). A deep hierarchy of predictions enables online meaning extraction in a computational model of human speech comprehension. PLoS Biol 21(3): e3002046. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002046
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MacGregor, L.J., Gilbert, R.A., Balewski, Z., Mitchell, D.J., Erzinçlioğlu, S.W., Rodd, J.M., Duncan, J., Fedorenko, E. & Davis, M. (2022). Causal contributions of the domain-general (Multiple Demand) and the language-selective brain networks to perceptual and semantic challenges in speech comprehension. Neurobiology of Language, 4(4), 665-698. https://doi.org/10.1162/nol_a_00081
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Aller, M., Solberg-Økland, H., MacGregor, L.J., Blank, H. & Davis, M.H. (2022). Differential auditory and visual phase-locking are observed during audio-visual benefit and silent lip-reading for speech perception. Journal of Neuroscience, Aug 3;42(31):6108-6120. https://doi.org/10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2476-21.2022.
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MacGregor, L.J., Rodd, J.M., Gilbert, R.A., Hauk, O., Sohoglu, E., & Davis, M. (2020). The neuromagnetic time course of semantic ambiguity resolution in speech comprehension. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 32(3), 403-425.
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Cope, T., Shtyrov, Y., MacGregor, L.J., Holland, R., Pulvermüller, F., Rowe, J. & Patterson, K. (2020). Anterior temporal lobe is necessary for efficient lateralised processing of spoken word identity. Cortex, 126, 107-118.
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Shtyrov, Y. & MacGregor, L.J. (2016). Near-instant automatic access to words in the brain: Neuromagnetic evidence. Scientific Reports, 6, 26558.
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Mohr, B., MacGregor, L.J., Difrancesco, S., Harrington, K., Pulvermüller, F. & Shtyrov, Y. (2016). Hemispheric contributions to language reorganization: An MEG study of neuroplasticity in chronic post-stroke aphasia. Neuropsychologia, 93(ptB), 413-424.
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MacGregor, L.J., Bouwesema, J. & Klepousniotou, E. (2015). Sustained activation for polysemous but not homonymous words: Evidence from EEG. Neuropsychologia, 68, 126-138.
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MacGregor, L.J., Difrancesco, S., Pulvermüller, F.P., Shtyrov, Y.S., & Mohr, B. (2015). Ultra-rapid access to words in chronic aphasia: The effects of intensive language action therapy (ILAT). Brain Topography, 28, 279-291.
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Featherstone, C., Morrison, C., Waterman, M. & MacGregor, L.J. (2014). Musical training affects semantic integration in sentence processing: Tales of the unexpected. Psychomusicology: Music, Mind and Brain, 24, 291-297.
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Palmer, S.D., MacGregor L.J. & Havelka, J. (2013). Concreteness effects in the acquisition of novel concepts. Brain Research, 1538, 135-150.
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Featherstone, C.R. Morrison C.M., Waterman M.G., & MacGregor L.J. (2013). Semantics, syntax or neither? A case for resolution in the interpretation of N500 and P600 responses to harmonic incongruities. PLoS ONE 8(11): e76600.
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MacGregor, L.J. & Shtyrov, Y.S. (2013). Multiple routes for compound word processing in the brain: Evidence from EEG. Brain and Language, 126, 217-219.
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Bakker, I., MacGregor, L.J., Pulvermüller, F.P., & Shtyrov, Y.S. (2013). Past tense in the brain's time: Neurophysiological evidence for dual-route processing of past-tense verbs. Neuroimage, 71, 187-195.
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MacGregor, L.J., Pulvermüller, F., van Casteren, M., & Shtyrov, Y. (2012). Ultra-rapid access to words in the brain. Nature Communications, 3: 711.
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MacGregor, L.J., Corley, M., & Donaldson, D.I. (2010). Listening to the sound of silence: Investigating the consequences of disfluent silent pauses in speech for listeners. Neuropsychologia, 48, 3982.
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Li L., & MacGregor, L.J. (2010). Investigating the receptive vocabulary size of university-level Chinese learners of English: how suitable is the Vocabulary Levels Test? Language and Education, 24, 239-249.
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MacGregor, L.J., Corley, M., & Donaldson, D.I. (2009). Not all disfluencies are are equal: the effects of disfluent repetitions on language comprehension. Brain and Language, 111, 36-45.
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Collard, P., Corley, M., MacGregor, L.J., & Donaldson, D.I. (2008). Attention orienting effects of hesitations in speech: evidence from ERPs. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 24, 696-702.
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Corley, M., MacGregor, L.J., & Donaldson, D.I. (2007). It's the way that you, er, say it: hesitations in speech affect language comprehension. Cognition, 105, 658-668.
