Enhancing audiovisual perception for speech rehabilitation

Investigating individual differences in audiovisual speech perception would be the ideal next step for my academic
career, combining key interests in vision, language processing and multivariate methods in MEG with the potential for
clinical translation. Throughout my studies in English, Psychology and Neuroscience, as well as research in visual
perception, psychophysics and psycholinguistics, I have gained a sustained interest in the neurological underpinnings of
our ability to speak and listen, and intend to study these in a PhD. The capacity to use and process language in its
various multimodal formats is essential for participation in everyday life, and impairment in this capacity e.g. due to
hearing loss may significantly lower quality of life. A PhD project leveraging findings from basic cognitive neuroscience
research on the language system towards translational benefits is therefore of particular interest to me. My research
experiences have given me an appreciation for studying the neurobiological underpinnings of how sensory signals are
translated into complex, meaningful representations in the brain. Throughout my undergraduate and my prospective
MPhil project, I have become particularly interested in multivariate analysis for temporal measures of neural activity,
disentangling distinct stages of processing. In sum, investigating the contribution of vision during language processing in
its most ecological form towards clinical benefits is a perfect match for me.