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Suzanne

Department of Linguistics
New York University
10 Washington Place, rm 603
New York, NY 10003

Suzanne.Dikker @ nyu.edu

Fifth-year PhD student

Dikker

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[ CV ]


Neurolinguistics Lab
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Research

Interests

How is it possible that it takes the brain only half a second to fully analyze the word solved in a sentence like the puzzle was solved?

In my research I investigate the nature of the neural mechanisms that enable such efficient language processing.

Using MEG, we (Hugh Rabagliati, Liina Pylkkänen, and myself) recently found that visual cortex shows sensitivity to linguistic manipulations as early as ~100ms (evidenced by increased activity at the visual M100 component, the first salient response to visual stimulation in MEG, for an unexpected syntactic category like the puzzle was in the solved). This finding was striking in two respects: (a) left-anterior and -temporal regions, and not visual areas, are typically implicated in syntactic composition, and (b) the visual M100 reponse typically only shows sensitivity to low-level visual factors, such as stimulus noise and size, not even distinguishing between letter strings and symbols for words in isolation. Read our recent paper in Cognition if you are curious about the details.

How can early sensory processing be affected by high-level linguistic factors such as syntactic category?

We hypothesize that this very early effect makes most sense if you explain it in the context of structural anticipation. When we read or listen our brains are very proactive, continuously estimating what might come next. The neural correlates of this proactive processing might take the form of top-down modulation of visual cortex. Under such a hypothesis, visual cortex does not perform linguistic analysis: rather, the effect arises from the violation of category predictions that have been priorly 'translated' into visual form correlates.

This hypothesis raises (at least) two questions:
(a) what does visual cortex respond to exactly? (i.e., what is the nature of the predicted representation) and
(b) where/when in the brain might linguistic predictions be generated?

My current research aims to answer these questions, possibly expanding to non-linguistic contexts in the future.

In previous work, I have focused on how language contact and bilingualism can inform linguistic theory. For example, I have studied
the behavior of lexical vs. grammatical categories in Media Lengua, a bilingual mixed language between Spanish and Quechua (Ecuador);
code-switching patterns (the mixing of 2 languages within one clause); and
the nature of agreement in creole languages.

Lastly, and not least importantly, I try to contribute to society at large a bit, mainly in the context of language analysis, which is used by a number of governments as a method to determine asylum seekers' origin. Read more here (Guidelines) and here (de Taalstudio).
And I have recently started investigating the education of Latino emergent bilinguals in the New York City High School system under Ofelia Garcia.

(in press) Early occipital sensitivity to syntactic category is based on form typicality [pdf]
with Hugh Rabagliati, Thomas Farmer and Liina Pylkkänen / Psychological Science

(2009) Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortex [pdf]
with Hugh Rabagliati and Liina Pylkkänen / Cognition, 110(3),293-321

(subm) Parsing code-switched sentences: experimental evidence on the processing of word order
with Peter Indefrey

(2008) Spanish prepositions in Media Lengua: redefining relexification
In: Stolz, Thomas, Dik Bakker & Rosa Salas Paloma (eds.) / Hispanisation. The Impact of Spanish on the Lexicon and Grammar of the Indigenous Languages of Austronesia and the Americas (EALT 39)/ Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter

(2006) On the presence versus absence of morphological marking in four Romance-based creoles
with Jacques Arends, Hugo Cardoso, Eva van Lier, and Josje Verhagen / In: Bhatt, Parth & Ingo Plag (eds.) / The structure of creole words: Segmental, syllabic and morphological aspects / Tübingen: Niemeyer

(2005) The interplay between syntactic and contextual information: Agreement domains in FDG
with Eva van Lier / In: Mackenzie, J. Lachlan and María de los Ángeles Gómez-González (eds.) / Studies in Functional Discourse Grammar (Linguistic Insights, 26) / Berne: Peter Lang

(2004) On the whereabouts of gender and number agreement: location and accessibility
In: Kees Hengeveld (ed.) / Morphology in Functional Discourse Grammar / Working Papers in Functional Grammar 79 / pp. 35-51

(2004) review of Tomoyuki Koijma & Kimitaka Kaga (2003): ‘Auditory lexical-semantic processing impairments in aphasic patients reflected in event-related potentials (N400)’ Auris Nasus Larynx. 2003 Dec;30(4):369-78
/ In: Afasiologie. Referatenblad voor Taalpathologie 26 / 2 / 2004 / pp. 44-45

(2004) Taalanalyse: een vak apart
with Maaike Verrips / report, lit. review on the scientific validity of language analysis as a method to determine the origin of asylum seekers / Published by and available through de Taalstudio

(2002) El indefinido e imperfecto en el español como L2: La definición y perfección de una distinción aspectual
In: Andalusischer Germanistenverband Magazin / Diciembre 2002 / pp. 22-32

Publications

Publications

Talks/Posters

Posters\Talks

[ CV ]

(2009) Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortex
invited talk @ The Max Planck Institute for Human and Cognitive Brain Sciences (based on work carried out in collaboration with Hugh Rabagliati, Thomas Farmer and Liina Pylkkänen)/ Leipzig, Germany / July 2009

(2009) Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortex: the role of form typicality [poster]
poster with Hugh Rabagliati, Thomas Farmer, and Liina Pylkkänen @ 22nd Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing / Davis, CA / March 2009

(2008) Syntax at 100ms: 3 MEG experiments
talk (based on work carried out in collaboration with Hugh Rabagliati, Thomas Farmer and Liina Pylkkänen) @ Neurolinguistics and Imaging: Progress and Prospects Workshop / NYU Abu-Dhabi, United Arab Emirates / December 2008

(2008) Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortex: the role of phonological typicality [poster]
poster with Hugh Rabagliati, Thomas Farmer, and Liina Pylkkänen @ 14th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 14) / Cambridge, UK / September 2008

(2008) workshop title: Automatic Processing of Natural Language Code Switching (NSF funded SGER)
invited participation in workshop organized by the CADIM group / Tampa, FL / April 2008

(2008) Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortex: a manipulation of prediction strength and morphological type [poster]
poster with Hugh Rabagliati and Liina Pylkkänen @ 21th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing / Chapel Hill, USA / March 2008

(2007) Sensitivity to syntax in visual cortex: a magnetoencephalography study
talk with Hugh Rabagliati and Liina Pylkkänen @ Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting / New York, USA / May 2007 [Graduate Students Present Award]

(2007) MEG reveals early sensitivity to phrase-structure violations in visual cortex [abstract]
talk with Hugh Rabagliati and Liina Pylkkänen @ 20th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing / La Jolla, USA / March 2007

(2007) Fine-graining structure prediction in sentence processing: evidence from language mixing [poster]
poster with Peter Indefrey @ 20th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing / La Jolla, USA / March 2007

(2006) Incremental versus depth-first structure generation in parsing: Experimental evidence from word order patterns in code-switching.
poster with Peter Indefrey @ 12th Annual Conference on Architectures and Mechanisms for Language Processing (AMLaP 12) / Nijmegen, the Netherlands / August-September 2006

(2006) Levels of template selection and look-ahead
invited talk @ Functional Grammar Colloquium / Amsterdam, the Netherlands / June 2006

(2006) The classification of Spanish prepositions: Evidence from Media Lengua
talk @ Linguistic Symposium on Romance Languages (LSRL 36) / Rutgers, USA / March-April 2006

(2006) Disentangling incremental & top-down parsing: experimental evidence from VO/OV word order in code-switching
poster with Peter Indefrey @ 19th Annual CUNY Conference on Human Sentence Processing / New York, USA / March 2006

(2005) On the collection of ‘useful and reliable data’ [Language Analysis in asylum cases]
talk given & symposium organized @ the 7th Biennial Conference on Forensic Linguistics/Language and Law / Cardiff, UK / July 2005

(2005) Language analysis as a method to determine national origin in asylum cases
talk with Carolien van den Hazelkamp @ Linguistics in the Netherlands day (TIN-dag) / Utrecht, The Netherlands / January 2005

(2004) On the whereabouts of gender and number agreement: location and accessibility
talk with Eva van Lier @ 11th International Conference on Functional Grammar / Oviedo, Spain / September 2004

(2004) Los límites de la relexificación en una lengua bilingue mezclada: preposiciones castellanas en la Media Lengua
talk @ Conference on Amerindian languages in contact with Spanish: linguistic and sociolinguistic issues / Amsterdam, The Netherlands / June 2004

(2004) A unit-based approach to the representation of agreement morphology in Functional Discourse Grammar
talk @ Functional Grammar Colloquium / Amsterdam, The Netherlands / March 2004

(2003) Morphological richness and formative context of four Romance-based creoles
talk with Jacques Arends, Hugo Cardoso, Eva van Lier, and Josje Verhagen @ International Workshop on the Phonology and Morphology of Creole Languages / Siegen, Germany / October 2003

Fall 2009 Neural bases of language Professor: Liina Pylkkänen

Fall 2008 Neural bases of language Professor: Liina Pylkkänen

Spring 2008 Language Professor: Anna Szabolcsi

Fall 2007 Language & Society Professor: Tara S. Sanchez

Spring 2007 Bilingualism Professor: Zvjezdana Vrzic

Fall 2006 Cognition Professor: Gregory Murphy
course taught through NYU Department of Psychology

Teaching

Teaching

Modified October 2009.