Research
A distinctive feature of human language is that it allows us to talk about anything, including facts about the world (‘The king of the Netherlands is a pilot.’) and even things outside the immediate here-and-now, such as hypothetical scenarios that are possible (‘Maybe the Dutch king flies an airplane right now.’) or impossible (‘If the United States had a king, he would fly a bigger plane than the Dutch one.’). These different types of utterances vary in the information they provide. Facts allow us to alter a person’s belief state about the actual world (if you didn’t know that the Netherlands is a monarchy for example, you have now learnt that we have a king), other utterances (such as the hypotheticals above) are not aimed to update the current belief state of the listener, instead they express various levels of information compatible or incompatible with the current world. Interestingly, people are able to differentiate these different types of information at a rapid pace, while making judgments about the speaker’s reliability and intentions, fast enough for them to prepare a response and have fluent conversations. How do we process this information so quickly? And how do we learn that utterances can have various discourse contributions and intentions in the first place? These are the big questions I touch upon in my research, looking at the neural correlates, development and processing of different linguistic structures.
Current Projects:
2025–2027
Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI) – John R. Evans Leaders Fund (JELF)
Co-applicant (Primary applicant: Simone Falk, Université de Montréal)
Project: Developmental Neurolinguistics Laboratory
This infrastructure project establishes a dedicated developmental neurolinguistics laboratory at the Université de Montréal. It includes the renovation of child-friendly, acoustically optimized research spaces and the acquisition of multimodal equipment for EEG, fNIRS, eye-tracking, audiovisual observation, and behavioral testing. The lab will house systems such as a Tobii Pro Fusion eye-tracker, a Brain Products actiCHamp Plus EEG system with infant and adult caps, and an NIRSport 2 fNIRS system, supported by synchronized audiovisual and data-management infrastructure. Developed in collaboration with Simone Falk, this laboratory will serve future research on early neural and behavioral markers of language acquisition.
2025–2026
Fonds de recherche du Québec – Nature et Technologies (FRQNT), CRBLM Research Incubator Award
Principal Investigator (Co-applicant: Rushen Shi, Université du Québec à Montréal)
Project: From Repeated Words to Grammar: Discovering How the Brain Learns Language
This interdisciplinary project investigates how learners form grammatical categories by distinguishing content and function words. Using an artificial language learning paradigm with EEG, the study tests how frequency and positional predictability trigger the emergence of function-word–like representations. This project is carried out in collaboration with Rushen Shi.
2024–2027
Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) Development Grant
Principal Investigator
Project: Disentangling the Impact of Social Interaction and Contingency on Sound Learning During Infancy
This project studies how social interaction influences early sound learning. Infants are exposed to a foreign phonetic contrast under passive, active, and interactive conditions during multiple play sessions, followed by testing discrimination abilities using an EEG oddball paradigm. This project aims to advance our understanding of how social context shapes early phonetic learning.
2023–2026
Fonds de recherche du Québec – Société et Culture (FRQSC), Support for Early Career Researchers
Principal Investigator
Project: Studying the Representational Properties of the Linguistic Expression of Possibility
This project examines how factual, open, and counterfactual meanings affect lexical access and neural processing. Combining behavioral measures with ERP recordings, it investigates how different kinds of possibility influence the activation of backgrounded versus foregrounded concepts.