Projects
Disfluencies and Eye MOvements during Speech: what can they reveal about language production? Ghent University
Speech production is full of disfluencies, which are “henomena that interrupt the flow of speech and do not add propositional content to an utterance” However, it is not well understood why speakers are so often disfluent. To reveal the underlying causes of disfluency, most approaches attempt to relate the pattern of disfluencies to difficulties at specific levels of language production. The current project will also investigate disfluency ...
Do your eyes protect your memory? From memory myths to the false memory potential of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing KU Leuven
Therapies such as EMDR or imagery rescripting (ImR) are two popular and effective interventions for dealing with trauma. Both EMDR and ImR rely heavily on changing the impact of autobiographical memories. In recent years, legal cases and clinical reports have shown that after therapy such as EMDR and ImR, patients “suddenly” report new memories of traumatic experiences. This could lead to patients erroneously claiming to have been, for ...
Eye movement and cognitive-interactional linguistics. In a multimodal approach to interaction management. KU Leuven
Face-to-face communication is an inherently multimodal process, with multiple semiotic channels operating simultaneously and collaboratively, including verbal, para-verbal (e.g. intonation, pace and volume of speech) and non-verbal behaviour (e.g. gaze, gesture, posture). This project presents a novel approach to multimodal interaction, with a specific focus on the role of interlocutors’ eye gaze in relation to the other semiotic channels. In ...
Instrumented dystonia and choreoathetosis assessment protocol (IDCA) of upper limb movements in cerebral palsy KU Leuven
The general aim of this doctoral project was to increase our insights into the qualitative and quantitative assessment methods for childhood-onset dystonia and choreoathetosis. Dystonia and choreoathetosis are movement disorders that interfere with activities of daily living and have a tremendous impact on quality of life. Dystonia and choreoathetosis can occur in children after a brain lesion near birth, as a consequence of a genetic defect, ...
Neural control of saccades and grasping movements towards objects in space KU Leuven
The posterior parietal cortex is important for sensory-motor integration. While the anterior part of the intraparietal sulcus (AIP) is involved in object grasping and stereo processing (Gallese et al., 1994; Durand et al., 2007), a more posterior part (lateral intraparietal area, LIP) has typically been implicated in attention and saccades (Colby et al., 1996; Corbetta and Shulman, 2002). Furthermore, both areas show selectivity for simple 2D ...
Eye gaze in musical interaction KU Leuven
During ensemble playing, musicians are challenged to convey their intentions towards each other and to coordinate their actions. To that purpose, they can rely on several nonverbal means of expression: the produced musical sounds, bodily movements, facial expressions and—the focus of this research—gaze. Since the 1990s, researchers have increasingly investigated the bodily aspects of musical performance. While the study of ensemble ...
How 'eye' read and learn: The development of the eyeRead package in R. University of Antwerp
To mirror or not to mirror upon perceived eye contact? A neurophysiological examination of interpersonal motor resonance KU Leuven
The overall aim of this doctoral project was to thoroughly investigate the effect of observed eye gaze on different neurophysiological markers of the human mirror system, which was achieved by conducting six different studies. In a first study, we developed a sensitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) protocol for measuring the effect of direct versus averted eye gaze on interpersonal motor resonance, as indexed by corticospinal ...
Sizing up numbers: Exploring individuals’ numerical magnitude understanding of natural and rational numbers using eye tracking KU Leuven
It is a well-established finding that the numerical magnitude of natural numbers (e.g., 250) is better understood than that of rational numbers (e.g., ¼ or 0.25; Vamvakoussi, Christou, & Vosniadou, 2018). Consequently, number type (i.e., natural vs. rational) can be regarded as source of difficulty in numerical magnitude understanding. However, research has shown, within the class of rational numbers, that the numerical magnitude ...