hello!

I study how the human brain processes language.

My interests and experiences have brought me to MIT’s Brain & Cognitive Sciences department and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research, where I work with Ev Fedorenko and an incredible team of language scientists at EvLab. While my research broadly intends to chart the footprints of language cognition, my interests follow two primary trails:

• (Mis)communication | When, why, and how do we misunderstand each other during linguistic communication?

  Misinterpretation is not a flaw, but a natural feature, of conversation. In day-to-day conversation, we readily assume we have arrived at a shared meaning between speakers, but often we have no more than approximately understood one another, instead maintaining quite distinct representations of the shared information. I use neuroimaging and computational methods to investage when, why, and how meanings may get distorted or lost during linguistic communication.

  • Reactivity | Why does miscommunication elicit strong reactions between speakers and comprehenders?

    Often, miscommunication – especially misinterpretations at higher stakers – is easily recognizable and deeply felt. An interesting sub-question, then, is why these failures of communication manifest in such vibrant ways. Necessarily, we must first understand the source of misinterpretations. I hope to extend my research in this direction.

  • Repair | How do we anticipate and resolve miscommunication during linguistic communication?

    In dialogue, we correct ourselves and others. This process of interactive repair is informative with respect to how we theorize about the content of speakers' minds. I am interested in what corrective strategies suggest about an intuitive theory of mind in spoken conversation.

• Culture & bilingualism | How does linguistic experience influence language cognition and communication?

  Mounting evidence suggests that experience with multiple linguistic inventories imposes structural and functional changes upon the brain. Using a mix of neuroimaging and behavioral techniques, I aim not only to understand these changes, but also to convey their importance as both a scientific lens and framework for interpersonal flourishing. Similarly, linguistic habits are influenced by culture and reflected in language use. Here I aim to understand i) how individuals' various cultural backgrounds inform their production and comprehension of language, as well as ii) how they differ in their internal representations of linguistic content.

The brain’s functional landscape is yet largely unexplored. You can read more about what I and my delightful collaborators have discovered in pursuit of these questions, where I’ve been along the way, and what other curiosities occupy my brain as you explore the terrain of this site. Otherwise –– if I’m not doing science, I’m probably hiking.

Happy (neural) trails! :)