If you’re interested in joining the lab, you can hear lab director Dr. Saloni Krishnan talk about our work in the video below. You can read more about our research themes.
Motivation and Reward for Word Learning
We explore the role of intrinsic factors such as reward, motivation, and curiosity during language learning. Key collaborations are with Dr. Pablo Ripollés, NYU, Dr. Jessie Ricketts, Royal Holloway and Dr. Matt Apps, Birmingham. We have received funding from the Experimental Psychology Society, Academy of Medical Sciences, ESRC and the MRC to pursue this work.
The BOLD study
http://boldstudy.wordpress.com
The Oxford Brain Organisation in Language Development or OxBOLD study was set up to investigate the neural basis of developmental language disorder. The study was based at the University of Oxford, headed by Professors Kate Watkins and Dorothy Bishop, and was funded by the MRC. Saloni was the lead postdoctoral researcher on the OxBOLD study.
One of the key aims of this work was to investigate whether children with DLD have abnormal or dysfunctional corticostriatal learning systems. We have published several papers addressing these questions (Krishnan et al., 2022, eLife; Krishnan et al., 2021, NeuroImage).
Music on the brain
In collaboration with Professor Sophie Scott at UCL, we studied how motor experience can influence neural activity for perception. In 2015, we collected data from 20 beatboxers, 20 guitarists and 20 non-musicians. This work was funded by the Wellcome Trust. We have published a key dataset from this study (Krishnan et al., 2018, Cerebral Cortex), but are currently analysing data about how experience with objects influences sound perception. News coverage of our previously published work can be seen here: Cognitive Neuroscience Society, BBC Radio 3, Daily Mail, Medium