Research Themes
Language
Language skills require speech perception, speech production and the ability to relate them both.
Our laboratory uses behavioral techniques along with structural and functional imaging to study language.
Some research projects in the lab investigating language are:
Speech is a timed motor response. It is also a time pressure signal which contains information that encodes different articulatory gestures.Our laboratory is also interested in using signal processing techniques to investigate speech articulation.
Patients with brain tumor or lesion are known to exhibit language deficits. Our laboratory investigates behavioral performance as well as cortical activation patterns while picture-naming, in patients with left frontal lobe tumor prior to surgery.
White matter of brain consists of axonal bundles which connects different brain regions. Language skills are predicted by how well these white matter pathways are arranged. Multilingualism is also known to affect white matter structure. Our laboratory uses diffusion tensor imaging(DTI) to study differences in white matter structure of monolinguals and bi/multilinguals.
Literacy
Research in our laboratory is aimed at studying how the unique properties of Indian languages and writing systems (e.g., transparent spelling-sound mapping and non-linear and complex scripts), as well as the socio-cultural profiles (e.g., bilingualism, multilingualism and biliteracy) shape the neurocognitive and behavioral bases of reading in children and adults.
Some research projects in the lab investigating literacy are:
In India, we live in an environment where individuals use multiple languages unconsciously. Yet little is known about how multiple languages are learnt, what determines reading abilities and disorders of reading like dyslexia. Our laboratory uses a combination of behavioral techniques and functional and structural neuroimaging to investigate these features.
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Development of screening tools in indian languages to assess reading disability
Despite the high incidence of reading disability in Indian children, there is a lack of tests to assess reading problems standardized for our population. We have developed a screening tool (iLAB) for testing reading skills of children of grades 1-5 in English, Hindi, Marathi and Kannada standardized from about 4000 children.
Music
The perception of music by the human auditory cortex is an amazing feat. However, we still do not fully understand the mechanisms which enable our brain to process complex auditory stimuli like music. Using a combination of human behavioural experiments, signal processing tools for acoustic analysis and functional MRI of the human brain, we are interested in studying auditory processing of music.
Some research projects in the lab investigating music are:
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Speech and music processing in individuals with autism
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neuro-developmental disorder, which is reported to affect 1 in every 110 children. Difficulties in communication are central to ASD and have been attributed to underconnectivity in brain regions of speech and language. However, at the same time, many children with autism show exceptional musical abilities and respond to music as treatment. Based on this, our laboratory has designed music therapy as a communicative intervention.
That Indian classical ragas induce different emotional states is well documented in Indian classical music theory, but there has been limited investigation to validate this. The purpose of the study is to understand the neural basis of emotion contagion as applied to music,specifically Indian classical music using acoustic analysis and neuroimaging techniques.
Funding
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Grant title: A functional imaging study of dyslexia in biscriptal Indian children
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Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology, Govt. of India.
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Grant title: Perception Engineering Programme - Understanding auditory perception
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Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Govt. of India.