Shari Baum - Distinguished James McGill Professor
Annie C. Gilbert, PhD - Research associate / Lab manager
Alexandre Herbay - Doctoral Student
Max Wolpert - Doctoral Student
Claire Honda - Doctoral Student
Stéphanie Deschamps - Doctoral Student
Kaija Sander - Doctoral Student
Dominique Louër - Doctoral Student
Renee (Pinning) He - Master's Student
Annie C. Gilbert
annie.c.gilbert [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email) - Website
I have a long-standing interest in elucidating how humans communicate via variations in air pressure, more commonly known as "sounds". This interest resulted in my completion of a doctoral degree in linguistics at Universite de Montréal, where I studied both perception and production of speech. In particular, I examined the physiological, psycholinguistic, and neurolinguistic correlates of structural prosody. Subsequently, I completed post-doctoral training in psychology and communication sciences and disorders at McGill Univeristy, where I continued examining speech communication, using a variety of other methods and techniques. My current research goal is to examine what is specific to speech processing itself versus what can be explained by domain-general (physiological or cognitive) constraints. My other academic interests include speech acquisition, language evolution, forensic applications of acoustic phonetics, and teaching.
Alexandre Herbay
alexandre.herbay [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email)
My research interests include the dynamic of language processing and its neurocognitive basis, especially at the morpho-syntactic and semantic levels. I’m currently working on verb particle construction processing by French-English bilinguals.
Max Wolpert
max.a.wolpert [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email)
I work with Shari Baum and Karsten Steinhauer studying bilingual sentence processing with EEG. Specifically, I am interested in first language attrition in Chinese immigrants, and how English experience can modify first language Mandarin grammatical processing. To assign argument structure in sentences, English speakers most rely on word order, while Mandarin speakers rely more on context and semantic knowledge. Looking at the interaction between these conflicting sentence processing strategies in bilinguals can inform us about neuroplasticity and language learning.
Claire Honda
claire.honda [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email)
I am currently using EEG to study a brainwave called the frequency following response. I am interested in how differences in brain activity relate to differences in the perception of speech sounds. I hope to contribute to our understanding of why some people learn languages more easily than others, so that language learning can become more accessible and successful for everyone.
Stéphanie Deschamps
stephanie.deschamps2 [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email)
My research focuses on exploring the neural correlates of early language experiences, and how these experiences modulate the organization of the brain and language processing later on in life. My current work with international adoptees from China examines the effects of early but discontinued exposure to a tonal language on the processing of lexical tones in adulthood, at both the cortical and subcortical levels, through the implementation of neuroimaging techniques (fMRI, EEG) and behavioural methods.
Kaija Sander
kaija.sander [at] mail.mcgill.ca (Email)
I am a doctoral student in the Integrated Program in Neuroscience. I study second language learning and brain connectivity. My project is about identifying individual neural biomarkers and changes in connectivity associated with second language learning success.