Meet the Lab
Sophie Scott FMedSci FBA
Principal InvestigatorGoogle Scholar Profile
PhD in Cognitive Science University College London, UK BSc Hons in Life Sciences Polytechnic of Central London, UK Sophie is Deputy Director and Head of the Speech Communications Group at UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She is a member of the British Psychological Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society and the Experimental Psychology Society. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2016. Sophie’s research investigates the neural basis of vocal communication – how our brains process the information in speech and voices and how our brains control the production of our voice. Within this, her research covers the roles of streams of processing in auditory cortex, hemispheric asymmetries and the interaction of speech processing with attentional and working memory factors. Other interests include individual differences in speech perception and plasticity in speech perception, since these are important factors for people with cochlear implants. Sophie is also interested in the expression of emotion in the voice. In particular, her research in recent years has focused on the neuroscience of laughter. Alexis Deighton MacIntyre
PhD StudentMPhil with Distinction in Music and Science
University of Cambridge, UK BMus in Jazz Studies Vancouver Island University, Canada I am interested in rhythm as it is expressed across speech, music, dance, and other forms of motor sequencing, particularly in communicative and cooperative contexts. Although we tend to associate rhythm with songs or dancing, rhythm permeates throughout everyday life. When we shake hands, fall into step together, or dribble a basketball, we move with a rhythm. This happens unconsciously and seemingly effortlessly, but how we are able to achieve such temporal control remains neuroanatomically mysterious. To keep up in a dynamic world, we need to anticipate narrow and frequently non-adjacent windows of time to act in the future, like the right moment to return a serve in tennis, or when it's your turn to speak in conversation. One strategy we may use is beat-based timing, which can be likened to "feeling the pulse" of a recurring pattern in time. During my doctoral studies, I will investigate the neural-cognitive underpinnings of beat-based timing using a mixed methods approach including behavioural, physiological, and neuroimaging techniques. Funding Overseas Research Scholarship Graduate Research Scholarship Cambridge Canada Trust Scholarship |
Sophie Meekings
Postdoctoral FellowBA in Linguistics
Newcastle University, UK MSc with Distinction in Language Sciences, Linguistics & Neuroscience UCL, UK PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience UCL, UK I'm a British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow hosted by Newcastle University in partnership with the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, UCL. The big questions I’m interested in are:
My research attempts to address these questions by looking at the acoustics of how people change their voices in different situations, and how this is related to brain activation, as well as more subjective things like feelings of agency and affiliation. In my spare time I help run residential camps for a national children's outdoor charity, which involves teaching small children how to use axes and set fire to things. Not both at the same time, though. Funding British Academy ESRC |
Ceci Qing Cai
PhD StudentMSc with Distinction in Development, Disorders and Clinical Practice
University of York, UK BSc in Applied Psychology Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai, China My research interests are in the processing of emotional vocalisation with laughter as the main focus, in particular its underlying neurocognitive mechanism. During my PhD, I would like to explore how the production and perception of laughter differ between neurotypical and clinical populations, such as people with autism. I will implement behavioural testing and neuroimaging approaches, including fNIRS and fMRI, in order to better understand the developmental trajectory of social emotional vocalisation and its use in establishing and maintaining social bonds within interactions. Funding Overseas Research Scholarship Addison Niemeyer
PhD StudentBSc in Neural Circuitry and Physiology
University of Massachusetts, USA University of Oxford, UK I am interested in understanding the development of neural circuits that underlie social behaviour disorders. I hope to explore the anatomical and physiological components of ASD-related cognition using different imaging and recording techniques. My project focuses on the perception and processing of non-verbal vocal communication. I’m a fencer, writer, and avid music listener. Cooking is another passion of mine, and I’m working to master the art of the perfect pasta Bolognese. |
Lab Alumni
Julian Sandler, MSc Student
BSc in Biology
University of York, UK
My master’s project with Sophie is on the cognitive neuroscience of beatboxing; using both structural and functional MRI to explore the neural basis of expert vocal articulator control. With the help of renowned beatboxer Reeps One, I am also involved in participant recruitment for a genetics study on beatboxers led by Professor Simon Fisher of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen.
My undergraduate research project was looking at S100 protein structure and expression in Xenopus tropicalis. I’ve also previously assisted at the Music Cognition Lab of Queen Mary University of London, on a project exploring the relative salience of different features of music (melody, harmony and rhythm). My research interests are quite varied!
University of York, UK
My master’s project with Sophie is on the cognitive neuroscience of beatboxing; using both structural and functional MRI to explore the neural basis of expert vocal articulator control. With the help of renowned beatboxer Reeps One, I am also involved in participant recruitment for a genetics study on beatboxers led by Professor Simon Fisher of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen.
My undergraduate research project was looking at S100 protein structure and expression in Xenopus tropicalis. I’ve also previously assisted at the Music Cognition Lab of Queen Mary University of London, on a project exploring the relative salience of different features of music (melody, harmony and rhythm). My research interests are quite varied!
Luke Martin, MSc Student
BSc in Biomedical Science
University of Greenwich, UK
I’m interested in the possibility of a joint origin of music and speech, and shared substrates used to contextually process sound. I want to explore the way pitch is utilised to communicate emotion, both in speech as intonation and music as melody.
I’m currently using a joint speech task to investigate potential differences in speech production as a function of musical training, and how auditory synchronisation can contribute to the sense of self. Outside my studies, I like consuming and producing music, reading about history, and tea.
University of Greenwich, UK
I’m interested in the possibility of a joint origin of music and speech, and shared substrates used to contextually process sound. I want to explore the way pitch is utilised to communicate emotion, both in speech as intonation and music as melody.
I’m currently using a joint speech task to investigate potential differences in speech production as a function of musical training, and how auditory synchronisation can contribute to the sense of self. Outside my studies, I like consuming and producing music, reading about history, and tea.
Yueyang Zhang, MRes Student
BSc in Psychology
Southwest University, China
I have wide interests, including auditory processing, language comprehension, self-consciousness and machine learning. I work with Professor Scott on a project about auditory adaptation, we use fMRI to explore whether people will change their voice when they speak to different people and how this is computed neurally. Participants in our study will be asked to do joint-speech live with 3 people of different sex, age, and nationality. The related brain region and associated activity will tell us more about the human voice.
Southwest University, China
I have wide interests, including auditory processing, language comprehension, self-consciousness and machine learning. I work with Professor Scott on a project about auditory adaptation, we use fMRI to explore whether people will change their voice when they speak to different people and how this is computed neurally. Participants in our study will be asked to do joint-speech live with 3 people of different sex, age, and nationality. The related brain region and associated activity will tell us more about the human voice.
Gulun Jin, MSc Student
BSc in Applied Psychology
Durham University, UK
I am interested in the processing of non-verbal vocalizations, in particular its underlying brain mechanism. For my master project, I am using fNIRs to investigate how our brain processes different types of conversational laughter. Meanwhile, we are using questionnaires to study laughing behaviour in Chinese people and compare it with English people.
Durham University, UK
I am interested in the processing of non-verbal vocalizations, in particular its underlying brain mechanism. For my master project, I am using fNIRs to investigate how our brain processes different types of conversational laughter. Meanwhile, we are using questionnaires to study laughing behaviour in Chinese people and compare it with English people.
