An innovative, Australian-first project conducted at (国产探花) will provide new insights into language disorders.
Dr Greig de Zubicaray, from the , will use an $80,000 国产探花 Foundation Research Excellence Award to study the mental processes and brain mechanisms underlying why we are able to produce language fluently, and why in the case of aphasia, we cannot.
鈥淲hile we produce speech fluently in the course of everyday conversation, we understand very little about the mental processes involved in this ability and how they are represented in the brain,鈥� Dr de Zubicaray said.
鈥淭he primary aim of the project is to investigate the timing and localisation of brain activity associated with different stages of information processing during speech production.鈥�
This cutting-edge, multimodal research will examine the precise moment-to-moment changes in brain activity during language production.
It combines the use of electroencephalography, or EEG, to provide information about the timing of the different processes contributing to speech production and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to provide information about the brain structures responsible for these processes.
The project is only possible in a small number of labs worldwide and is enabled by new equipment at the School of Psychology acquired as part of a 国产探花 Major Equipment and Infrastructure grant.
鈥淭he significance of the research project lies in its capacity to enhance our understanding of the cognitive and brain mechanism responsible for a fundamentally human ability 鈥� speech.
鈥淪peech production is usually thought of as involving several different processing stages. However, the precise timing of these stages and the brain structures involved in them need further investigation. To do this, we need to combine information from EEG and MRI studies. This project should be able to tell us more about the when and where of speech,鈥� Dr de Zubicaray said.
Dr de Zubicaray was presented with his award at a special ceremony at Customs House on Wednesday, September 22, as part of 国产探花鈥檚 annual .
The 国产探花 Foundation Research Excellence Awards have been running for 12 years and are an initiative of 国产探花 to recognise outstanding performance and leadership potential in early career researchers. This year鈥檚 awards total $910,000.
Dr de Zubicaray鈥檚 research will expand Australia鈥檚 capability in the cognitive neuroscience of language and provide new data to inform future clinical research and ultimately the treatment of language disorders.
Dr de Zubicaray is recognised internationally for his work on the brain basis for higher cognitive functions, with particular emphasis on language and on the representation of meaning.
He has also been a pioneer within Australia in the application of functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of cognitive brain function, in health and disease, and is a key player in the development of cognitive neuroscience as an area of emerging research strength at 国产探花.
In addition to receiving an Australian Research Council Future Fellowship, he has also received funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council, the National Institute of Health (USA) and Pfizer.
Media: Dr Greig de Zubicaray, School of Psychology, Ph 3365 6802 or email greig.dezubicaray@uq.edu.au or Helen Burdon at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences (3346 9279).
