Perrine Brusini

Lecturer

A bit about Perrine Brusini

I am Lecturer of Developmental Psychology at the University of Liverpool. I received my undergraduate degree with specialisations in Linguistics from the University 7 Denis Diderot  (France) and my cogmaster at the ENS (France). I completed my PhD in cognitive science at Paris 6 Pierre et Marie Curie University focusing on early syntactic acquisition using neuroimaging methods. Following this, I moved to the International School for Advanced Studies (Italy) where I used EEG and NIRS to study early morpho-syntactic learning and speech processing as well as prediction in language. 

My research aims to shed light on the mechanisms engaged in language processing, and how these mechanisms arise during development. I investigate this line of research using neuroimaging techniques adapted for infants research as EEG and fNIRS.

My role in LuCiD

I am working on the From Variation to Explanation stream on a project with Dr Alissa Ferry and Dr Colin Bannard.  In this project we will be looking at how children with Developmental Language Disorder (DLD) process language to try to identify how this differs from children without DLD.

DLD affects approximately 7% of children and can lead to difficulties in education and communication. Yet, little is known about the underlying causes of DLD, which can make it difficult to diagnose and treat.  This work package will use cutting edge neuroimaging techniques to measure how different parts of the brain work together to process speech in children with and without DLD. 

When people speak, they usually speak quite quickly, without pauses between the words.  This means that one of the first steps to process incoming speech is to break it down into words and this step requires fast coordination between different areas of the brain.  This work package will look at how different brain areas coordinate when breaking speech down into words to determine if this process differs in children with and without DLD, which can help us better understand DLD and develop effective diagnostics and interventions.