Biography (she/her)
I am a cognitive neuroscientist who studies speech, music, and movement. In addition to auditory and sensorimotor processing, my interests broadly cover timing and rhythm, especially how our brains and bodies make use of temporal patterns to navigate complex sequenced behaviour-whether that means playing the drums, holding a conversation in a loud bar, or chopping vegetables along to your kitchen soundtrack. I use a variety of experimental, statistical, and computational methods to investigate these topics, working with acoustic, behavioural, kinematic, and electro-physiological data.
After growing up in Canada's Pacific Northwest (territory of the Snuneymuxw First Nation), I received a full scholarship to Cambridge University in England to study the cognitive science of music, where I researched how hearing different kinds of musical rhythms can influence the way we learn abstract patterns. Having graduated with Distinction, I relocated to London to pursue doctoral studies at University College London. In my PhD, I investigated speech perception and production, including how we time our breathing when we interact vocally. My thesis work encompassed coding algorithms and developing analytical techniques, as well as conducting behavioural and physiological experiments. Some of the findings from my PhD showed that we can detect sub-second variations in timing when we hear someone breathe in to speak, and that perceiving breathing sounds may also help our brain prepare to listen to speech that is about to begin.
I am currently an Early Career Research Fellow jointly funded by the Leverhulme and Isaac Newton Trusts at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit at Cambridge University and a Junior Research Fellow at Wolfson College. I mainly work on speech perception in in typically hearing and cochlear implant listeners. Besides being a scientist, I am a musician and I enjoy running, writing, and hanging out with my partner and our standard poodle, Baku.
Education
- PhD (2022) in Cognitive Neuroscience, University College London.
- MPhil in Music and Science, University of Cambridge.
- BMus in jazz guitar performance and composition, Vancouver Island University, Canada.