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SUMMARY:Studying natural speech processing at the phonemic level using EEG
  - Dr Edmund Lalor\, Institute of Neuroscience\, Trinity College Dublin
DTSTART:20151113T163000Z
DTEND:20151113T180000Z
UID:TALK60557@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Louise White
DESCRIPTION:Abstract: In recent years it has been firmly established that 
 EEG and MEG reliably entrain to the amplitude envelope of natural speech s
 timuli. This has facilitated the development of exciting new paradigms for
  investigating the neural mechanisms underlying natural speech processing.
  However\, it has been unclear whether this envelope entrainment phenomeno
 n simply reflects the lower-level passive following of the spectrotemporal
 /acoustic stimulus dynamics or whether it indexes something specifically t
 o do with speech processing. In particular\, there has been no evidence th
 at EEG or MEG entrainment reflects processing at the level of categorical 
 speech perception. In this talk I will attempt to convince you that EEG is
  sensitive not just to the low-level acoustic properties of speech\, but a
 lso to higher-level phonetic features of this most important of signals. A
 nd I will outline a number of paradigms and methodological approaches for 
 eliciting EEG indices of speech-specific processing that should be useful 
 in advancing our understanding of receptive speech processing in particula
 r populations.\n\nBiography: Ed Lalor received a BE degree in Electronic E
 ngineering from University College Dublin (UCD)\, Ireland in 1998 and an M
 Sc in Electrical Engineering from the University of Southern California in
  1999. After periods working as a silicon design engineer and a primary sc
 hool teacher for children with learning difficulties\, Ed joined MIT's Med
 ia Lab Europe\, where he worked from 2002-2005 as a research scientist inv
 estigating brain-computer interfacing and attentional mechanisms in the br
 ain. This led to a PhD in Biomedical Engineering which was completed throu
 gh UCD in 2006. After 2 years as a postdoctoral researcher at the Nathan K
 line Institute for Psychiatric Research and as an adjunct assistant profes
 sor in the City College of New York\, he returned to Ireland as a Governme
 nt of Ireland Postdoctoral Research Fellow based at Trinity College Dublin
 . He was awarded a Marie Curie Fellowship to join University College Londo
 n's Institute of Ophthalmology as a Research Associate in 2010. But he ret
 urned to Trinity College Dublin in 2011 as an Assistant Professor in the S
 chool of Engineering and as a Principal Investigator in both the Institute
  of Neuroscience and the Centre for Bioengineering.\n
LOCATION:Ground Floor Lecture Theatre\, Department of Psychology
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