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Lab director
Dr. Saloni Krishnan
Saloni Krishnan is a developmental cognitive neuroscientist whose research focuses on brain differences in childhood communication disorders, such as DLD (developmental language disorder) and dyslexia. Saloni is an Academy of Medical Sciences Springboard Award Holder and an MRC New Investigator. With this funding, Saloni is leading a team focusing on investigating the links between motivation and language learning. Saloni has won several prizes for her research, including the Neil O’Connor Award from the British Psychological Society and the NDAS Mid-Career Prize. She was named a Rising Star by the Association of Psychological Sciences in 2022. Her research has featured on the BBC, the Guardian, Daily Mail, and the Boston Globe. She serves as an editorial board member at Communications Psychology, an associate editor at the International Journal of Language and Communication Disorders, and an affiliate editor at the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. She is a committee member of the British Psychological Society’s Developmental section and a member of the UK Young Academy. In these roles, she advocates for a positive, rigorous, and inclusive research culture.
Postdoctoral Researchers
Dr Sonia singh
I am an MRC funded postdoc in the N-CoDe lab. My overall focus has centered around the human ability to learn patterned sequences and how this ability may influence language skills. My PhD training is in cognitive science and psychology with an emphasis on EEG data acquisition in individuals with dyslexia. Outside of perception research, I recently acquired speech kinematic data in children with DLD, as well as typical adults, to further investigate sequence learning through speech production. In my current role, I will explore reward and motivation mechanisms that may precede this kind of patterned learning, using MRI techniques, in children with DLD and autism. Beyond the lab, I am a compulsive reader of mystery fiction.
PhD students
Hannah Jones
I am currently a first year PhD student with a specific interest in atypical development, especially early invention and supportive measures research for neurological and developmental disorders. From my own experiences with autism and other conditions, I’ve learnt that language research is vital. Language is not limited to education but also socialising with friends, impacting mental health and the ability to reach out for help. I hope in the future to help people as I was once helped. In my spare time, I consume every book within my reach and write as much as can, all while being loved by my dogs and drinking excessive amounts of tea.
Courtney Hooton
I am a PhD student in the LARA lab at Royal Holloway investigating the orthographic facilitation of foreign language learning in children, collaborating with the N-CoDe Lab. My project focuses on the use of written word forms to strengthen foreign word learning in 7–10-year-olds, how this may vary across different languages and how feasible it would be to implement these methods in a school environment. My research is funded by the department via a Teaching Associate studentship- I spend three days of the week working on my PhD and the other two days teaching statistics in the Psychology department.
Outside of work, I enjoy reading, baking and catching up with friends across the country
Research Assistants
Nilgoun Bahar
Nilgoun is a PhD student in the Speech and Brain Lab at Oxford, co-supervised by Saloni. In the N-CoDe lab, Nilgoun has taken on a leading role in analysing the reward and motivation responses during word learning in neurotypical and dyslexic children.
Lab alumni
PostDoctorAL RESEARCHERS
Dr Desislava Arabadzhiyska (funded by AMS Springboard Award)
Dr Valeria Vinogradova (funded by ESRC Postdoctoral Fellowship)
PHD STUDENTS
Amrita Bains (funded by ESRC Collaborative Studentship)
Holly Coates McDowall (DClinPsy at RHUL)
GRADUATE RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Darius Parvizi-Wayne (funded by MRC PROPEL grant)
Undergraduate Research Assistants
Miykael Davis, Emily Todd, Bethany Garvin, Annaliese Barber, Tau Nell