Guillaume Thierry


Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience
Bangor University, United Kingdom


How do you get a confession from the unconscious?
Telepathy? Electroencephalography? How about both?

In this talk, Guillaume Thierry will use examples in the domains of language processing in bilinguals, linguistic relativity and decision-making to showcase how event-related potentials and event-related synchronisation, both derived from EEG can unveil highly sophisticated operations undertaken by the human brain, unbeknownst to the bearer of that brain. Finally, if time allows and if there is interest, we will discuss the unthinkable: mind-to-mind communication.

São Luís Castro


Full Professor
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Porto, Portugal


Literacy, Speech and Music: Common threads, diverging paths

Is language a "missing fundamental" of that triad? Certainly literacy and speech are instantiations of language in the broad sense, but the autonomy of language and music as neurocognitive systems has recently been strongly advocated. In this talk, São Luís Castro proposes to discuss evidence on the partial links that connect speech and literacy, on the one hand, and music, speech, and literacy, on the other hand, in search for a tentative conclusion that finds the place of language at an intersection of those systems.

Nicola Molinaro


Research Professor
Basque Centre on Cognition, Brain and Language, Spain


Language proficiency is related to the tracking of the speech acoustics

Nicola Molinaro will present the latest discoveries on how the adult brain of a second language learner can synchronize its oscillatory activity to the temporal properties of the second language. This phenomenon is linked to the learner's proficiency and may represent the conversion from a continuous acoustic stimulus to a discrete set of linguistic abstract representations. Nicola will also present his latest research exploring individual variability and revealing that those who synchronize better tend to be more proficient learners.

Jorge Almeida


Full Professor
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal


Director
PROACTION Lab, at the Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal


Contentopic mapping and object dimensionality:
a novel understanding on the organization of object knowledge

Our ability to recognize an object amongst many others is one of the most important features of the human mind. However, object recognition requires tremendous computational effort, as we need to solve a complex and recursive environment with ease and proficiency. This challenging feat is dependent on the implementation of an effective organization of knowledge in the brain. Here, Jorge Almeida puts forth a novel understanding of how object knowledge is organized in the brain, by proposing that the organization of object knowledge follows key object-related dimensions, analogously to how sensory information is organized in the brain. Moreover, he will put forth that this knowledge is topographically laid out in the cortical surface according to these object-related dimensions that code for different types of representational content - Jorge calls this contentotopic mapping. Jorge will show a combination of fMRI and behavioral data to support these hypotheses and present a principled way to explore the multidimensionality of object processing.

Sandra Carvalho


Assistant Professor
Department of Basic Psychology, School of Psychology, University of Minho, Portugal


Transcranial Electrical Stimulation:
A Neuroscience Tool for Investigating Brain (Dys)function and Behavior

Sandra Carvalho will delve into the significant contributions of Transcranial Electrical Stimulation (tES) as an advanced neuropsychological tool for investigating brain function and dysfunction, as well as its impact on behavior. Her presentation will encompass an in-depth analysis of pivotal findings from her research team's fundamental and translational studies, highlighting the effects of tES on cognition and various clinical symptoms. Additionally, she will explore the potential clinical applications of tES in treating neurological and psychiatric conditions, providing insights into how this technique can be integrated into therapeutic protocols. The talk will conclude with a forward-looking discussion on the future directions and innovative uses of tES in brain and behavior research, emphasizing the need for continued exploration and development in this promising field.

Miguel Castelo-Branco


Full Professor
Faculty of Medicine, University of Coimbra, Portugal


Director
Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), at the Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS), University of Coimbra, Portugal


Neural basis of decision-making under uncertainty

We will address the neural underpinnings of decision-making from multiple perspectives: from simple perceptual decisions, when stimulus ambiguity is high, to neuroeconomics and reward based decision in basic and clinical neuroscience. Finally, we will address the role of error monitoring, cognitive load and emotional processing in the context of decision-making, including ethical and deontological dilemmas.

Leona Polyanskaya


Associate Professor
Faculty of Psychology and Education Sciences, University of Coimbra, Portugal


Director
Laboratory of Language, Metacognition and Decision-Making (LMD), at the Coimbra Institute for Biomedical Imaging and Translational Research (CIBIT), Institute of Nuclear Sciences Applied to Health (ICNAS), University of Coimbra, Portugal


Senior Research Fellow
Göttingen University, Germany


The effect of writing script on efficiency and metacognitive monitoring in inferential word learning

Leona Polyanskaya will talk about the effect of linguistic experience (e.g., bilingual experience) and of language properties (e.g., syntactic properties or writing system) on metacognition. Further, she will discuss how language-induced modulation of metacognition might influence learning strategies in the course of language acquisition and language learning.