Women in Neuroscience Network: An integrative, interpersonal approach to studying real-world communication

Women in Neuroscience Network
An integrative, interpersonal approach to studying real-world communication

Dr. Elise Piazza
Assistant Professor
University of Rochester

Abstract:
Communication is inherently social and requires an efficient exchange of complex cues between speakers and listeners. However, language processing is typically studied using individual listeners and simplistic stimuli. What are the interpersonal mechanisms that allow us to connect with and learn from others across the lifespan? My lab studies everyday interactions using behavioral, computational, and dual-brain neuroimaging techniques in real-life environments. To understand the real-time dynamics of communication at the biological level, I have used brain-to-brain coupling (child-caregiver, adult-adult) as a measure of interpersonal alignment to predict communicative success and learning outcomes. In one fNIRS study, we found that activation in the infant prefrontal cortex preceded and drove similar activation in the adult brain, a result that advances our understanding of children’s influence over the accommodative behaviors of caregivers. In ongoing work using dual-brain EEG during adult dialogue, we are exploring the causal relationship between representations of fine-grained linguistic features, speaker-listener coupling, and overall communication quality. Across several studies, we have developed new methods for quantifying the acoustic and semantic structure of naturalistic speech in different communicative modes (e.g., infant-directed speech, podcasting to diverse audiences) and measuring how this structure relates to overall impressions of a speaker (e.g., creativity, personality). This collection of findings provides a new understanding of how our brains and behaviors both shape and reflect different audiences during everyday communication.

Speaker Bio:
Elise Piazza is an Assistant Professor of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at the University of Rochester, studying human communication using naturalistic behavioral, computational, and neuroimaging approaches. She was previously a C. V. Starr postdoctoral fellow at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, where she focused on the neural and behavioral mechanisms of everyday caregiver-child communication. She received her Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley in 2015, focusing on auditory, visual, and cross-modal perception, and received her B.A. from Williams College in 2009 in Psychology, Cognitive Science, and Music.

Intended Audience:
All are Welcome!