Team
(Research Group Leader)
Yulia is a cognitive neuroscientist with interests in everything related to speech and language. Prior to starting the lab in Tübingen, she worked as a postdoc at the University of California, San Francisco and got her PhD at the Freie Universitat and the Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience (BCCN) in Berlin. Outside science Yulia studies trilingual language acquisition with her two sons and waits for them to walk well enough to explore the hiking trails around Tuebingen. Yulia speaks Russian, German, Hebrew, and English in her day to day. She sometimes tries to speak Spanish and French, but mostly with little success.
(Visiting Researcher)
Camila is an Assistant Professor at the School of Psychology at Universidad de la República, Uruguay. She obtained her Ph.D. in Cognitive Neuroscience from the Basque Center for Cognition, Brain and Language in Spain and her Master's degree in Neuroscience from PEDECIBA in Uruguay. She is currently a visiting researcher in the lab, working on neurophysiological analysis of EEG data applied to language processing in children with dyslexia and reading difficulties. She is committed to the integration of Cognitive Science and Education until all children have quality opportunities to learn to read. She tried to learn German but gave up after consistently failing to order a cup of coffee.
(Postdoctoral Researcher)
Peter, a psychologist turned neuroscientist, is passionate about exploring the intersection of brain and behavior. He earned his PhD from Linköping University, where he focused on the role of sensorimotor processing in quantitative autistic traits, with particular emphasis on social pragmatic communication. At the Human Verbal Communication Lab, Peter investigates the impact of social pragmatic communication problems on the neural encoding of prosodic features in natural conversation. He employs behavioral paradigms and MEG in his research. Peter's overarching goal in science is to enhance the understanding of individual differences through measures of physiology and behavior, while ensuring that his research remains meaningful to those it concerns. Outside of work, Peter enjoys cooking, brewing beer, and discussing football. He is fluent in Danish, Swedish, and English, and hopes to add German to his repertoire.
(PhD Student)
Charlotte is a speech and language therapist turned cognitive scientist with an interest in the neural underpinnings of multimodal language processing. After receiving her B.A. from the Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich, Charlotte moved to Kaiserslautern and completed her M.Sc. in Cognitive Science at the Technical University. In February 2022, she joined the HVC lab as a PhD student. Charlotte is currently interested in temporal landmarks in the speech signal and plans on using electrophysiological as well as behavioral data in the future. In her free time, she enjoys making lino prints and trying out new recipes. Charlotte speaks German and English, and is currently brushing up on her French.
(PhD Student)
Mara is a natural scientist with a focus on auditory neuroscience and electrophysiological signal processing. She started as a PhD candidate in the lab in February 2022. Mara completed her Bachelors in biological sciences at Goethe University Frankfurt, where she did research on the auditory system of bats. For her Masters, she specialized in interdisciplinary neuroscience at the same university. Her main interest lies in how the human auditory system integrates information over time, in particular how humans adjust to different speech rates. Outside of the lab, she enjoys jogging and singing/songwriting with her guitar. Mara speaks German, Luxembourgish, English and French, she also tries to wrap her head around Greek (amazing how every Greek sentence feels like a math formula!).
(PhD Student)
Andrey received a B.A. degree in Linguistics and an M.A. degree in Cognitive Neuroscience at the HSE University, Moscow, Russia. He has been using neuroimaging and stimulation methods in clinical populations to study the neuroanatomical substrates of language processing. In 2022, Andrey joined the HVC lab as a student of the 5-year M.Sc./Ph.D. program at the International Max Planck Research School: The Mechanisms of Mental Function and Dysfunction. His research aims to better understand the mechanisms that enable the mapping between the phonological and the lexical-semantic representations of words. In his free time, Andrey likes doing sports, with his favorite one being skiing. He speaks Russian and English.
(PhD Student)
Luzie is a Biologist, who focused on Neurobiology in her Masters. In April 2024 she started as a PhD candidate in the lab. In her Bachelors Luzie studied Biology at the University of Tübingen and as she realized that the brain and all its mysteries fascinated her the most regarding the big topic of Biology, she decided to continue with the Neurobiology Master in Tübingen. After she completed her Masters, she did an ERASMUS+ internship at the University of Gent, where she worked on an EEG project about conformity. In the lab, she is now investigating the different states of neutrality in the brain during a perceptual decision-making task. Outside of the lab Luzie enjoys doing sports and yoga and reading all kind of books. Luzie speaks German and English, and knows some basics in French and Kiswahili.
(Medical Student)
Lea-Marie is studying medicine at the University of Tübingen with a special interest in neurology and psychosomatics. Her curiosity for bilingual language processing and the background of language-associated diseases motivated her to join the hvc lab as a medical student in October 2022. Her research aims to better understand cross-linguistic effects on neural language processing, especially with regard to syllable rhythm. Beyond her research, Lea-Marie is also passionate about foreign languages paving the way to explore and learn about different cultures. In her free time, Lea-Marie enjoys exploring new jogging tracks across Tübingen and playing the flute in different orchestras. In addition to her native German, she speaks English, French, some Italian and is always happy to find new conversation partners to improve her knowledge of Thai.
(Research Assistant)
Leon recently decided to say good bye to teaching and the Bachelor of Education. He joined the lab for his bachelor thesis on sound complexity and perceptual onsets for a smooth transitioning into the MSc in either neurobiology or cognitive science. Majoring in Biology and English situate him at the intersection between science and humanities which fostered strong cross-disciplinary critical thinking and a solid foundation for working in very interdisciplinary fields. He also helps out at the Neuroscience Student Lab taking care of the sheep brain but he cannot wait to get his hands on living material.
(Research Assistant)
Joel is an undergraduate student at the University of Tübingen studying linguistics and English. His research interests primarily revolve around language contact and historical linguistics. Joel's passion for these subjects ignited during his extended stays in Norway, spanning over two years, during which he dedicated himself to learning and understanding the Norwegian language and its relation to its Scandinavian relatives. Outside of university, Joel's interests focus mainly on making music and sports.
(Research Assistant)
Victoria is a student of Computational Linguistics at the University of Tübingen. Her interest in languages started at a young age as she grew up bilingual and continued learning languages as a hobby. While her studies deepened her interest in speech processing and natural language understanding, Victoria's passion for understanding the human brain led her to join the hvc lab as a research assistant. Here, she applies her knowledge in computational linguistics to explore the connections between language and cognition. Outside of her academic commitments she loves to bake and play the guitar or piano.