MPI researchers awarded Donders Stimulation Seed Funding

Mapping the neural morphospace of vocal prosody

Hatice Zora has received Donders Stimulation Seed Funding from the Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition, and Behaviour for the project ‘The Morphospace of Vocal Prosody’. In this project, she collaborates with Stephanie Forkel and Andrea Martin to investigate how vocal prosody is organized and represented in the brain.

The project aims to uncover the neural architecture underlying vocal prosody and its interactions with a wide range of cognitive domains. Specifically, it will (1) map existing fMRI research on vocal prosody within a unified morphospace framework, and (2) create cortical and white-matter maps of prosody and examine their associations with other cognitive functions. By integrating linguistic and paralinguistic perspectives with advanced neuroimaging approaches, the project seeks to provide a more comprehensive understanding of prosody in the brain while fostering future collaborations between MPI and the Donders Institute.

Linguistic alignment and communicative efficiency

Following Hatice Zora’s award, two more members of MPI’s Multimodal Language Department have received Donders Stimulation Seed Funding.

Esam Ghaleb has been awarded funding as co-applicant on the project ‘Quantity or quality? How do the temporal dynamics of communicative effort reduction mark qualitative linguistic alignment during interaction?’ The project is led by Sara Bögels (CLS, main applicant) in collaboration with Iris Hendrickx (CLS).

This project examines how mutual understanding develops during dyadic interaction by linking linguistic alignment - the emergence of shared linguistic constructions - with changes in communicative efficiency over time. Using a combination of computational methods and behavioural measures from referential communication tasks, the research team will identify which shared linguistic patterns drive reductions in multimodal communicative effort and when such reductions reliably signal higher-quality communication.

Concepts Focus Group

Ezgi Mamus has received a Research Stimulation Fund together with Dr. Marius Peelen for their initiative to establish a Concepts Focus Group. This group aims to bring together researchers across centers and themes who share an interest in concepts.

Concepts play a central role in many areas of cognitive neuroscience, including language, perception, action (e.g. embodied cognition), memory, neuropsychology, and lifespan development (such as semantic dementia). The focus group provides a platform for interdisciplinary exchange and collaboration around these shared theoretical and empirical interests. Researchers interested in joining the meetings are invited to contact Ezgi Mamus (ezgi.mamus [at] mpi.nl (ezgi[dot]mamus[at]mpi[dot]nl)) or Marius Peelen (marius.peelen [at] donders.ru.nl (marius[dot]peelen[at]donders[dot]ru[dot]nl)).
 

Focus Group Neurodiversity and Mental Health

This initiative from Beate St Pourcain, focuses on advancing neurodevelopmental research through the continuation of the Focus Group Neurodiversity and Mental Health. This group aims to support neurodevelopmental research across the Donders Institute by fostering innovative, interconnected, robust, and societally relevant science. Through four theme-based meetings, the group brings together researchers with national and international stakeholder organisations and projects, including SUNNI, Kentalis, and ADHD Europe.

The focus group aims to:

• initiate collaborations and stimulate new research and funding bids
• harmonise research projects
• increase opportunities for scientific triangulation
• establish co-creation between researchers and stakeholders

By strengthening dialogue between researchers and societal partners, the focus group contributes to a more inclusive and impactful research ecosystem within the Donders Institute.