Event Details

This event is co-organised by the Multilingualism and Cognition Research Group, the Heritage Language 2 Consortium (HL2C), and UiT’s Center for Language, Brain and Learning (C/LaBL) Brain Domain.

We are delighted to welcome Irene Balboni (University of Geneva) as our invite speaker in our joint seminar series.

Talk title: The Power of Studying Individual Differences: Insights from Dyslexia, Multilingualism, and Polyglotism

Abstract

Individual differences are often treated as noise in neuroscientific research, yet they offer a powerful lens for understanding the structure and variability of language processes. While typical studies aim to homogenize samples for clarity, embracing more ecological samples allows us to test hypotheses about core cognitive and linguistic functions, their association and dissociation and how they vary based on individual factors. In this talk, I will discuss work from the Aptitude project, where we collected a highly diverse sample (including multilinguals, polyglots, and dyslexic readers) and conducted deep behavioural and neural characterization across cognition, language, motor, music, and arithmetic domains. I will present two multivariate data-driven analysis exploring how these abilities interact behaviourally and relate to neural markers of language processing. Moreover, our work explored how individual differences, such as dyslexia and polyglotism, modulate these relationships and relate to brain representation of language.

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We look forward to seeing you at the seminar!