Francesca Carota

I investigate the neurocognitive properties of language comprehension and production, asking some of the following questions:

• how are concepts cognitively and neurally represented across languages?
• to what extent do language and gesture share modality-independent neural systems?
• does morphosyntactic structure require universal or, rather, language-specific neurocognitive mechanisms for typologically different languages (e.g. Italian, Arabic, English, Polish)? 
• what is the relative time course of conceptual preparation and speech planning in language production?

To address these questions, I employ behavioural, computational linguistic and neuroimaging methods (fMRI, MEG; both univariate and multivariate approaches to time data series [representational similarity analysis and pattern classification]).

Before joining the MPI, I worked at the Institut des Sciences Cognitive-CNRS in Lyon, at the MRC-CBU, the University of Cambridge, UK, Humboldt University, and Freie University in Berlin.

Outreach: Writer and illustrator for the MPI TalkLing, and Het Talige Brein, the popular science blogs of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (since April 2021): https://www.mpi-talkling.mpi.nl/?author=34&lang=en

"Do concepts have abstract meanings"? https://taalenhersenen.wordpress.com/2022/06/07/do-abstract-concepts-ha… https://www.mpi-talkling.mpi.nl/?p=1822&lang=en

"Do we understand words by the company it keeps?". https://www.mpi-talkling.mpi.nl/?p=1599&lang=en

"New COVID-19-related words as social antibodies keeping our brain busy". https://www.mpi-talkling.mpi.nl/?p=1153&lang=en

July 2022: "Trends in the Cognitive Nuroscience of Language", Course Leader for the International Radboud Summer School, Radboud University, MPI, DCCN, Nijmegen. https://www.ru.nl/radboudsummerschool/courses/2022/registration-longer-…

Spring Semester 2020: "Neurocognition of reading". Lecturer. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.

August 2019: "Trends and Topics in Neurolinguistics", Course Leader for the International Radboud Summer School, Radboud University, MPI, DCCN, Nijmegen.

April 2019: “The representation of concepts in the brain”. MA course. Lecturer. Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf.  

2018: "Representational Similarity Analysis and the representations of semantic categories". MA/PhD course. Guest Lecturer. Freie Universität, Berlin. 

2017: "Neurocognition of language: the meaningful brain". MA/PhD/early postdoc course. Lecturer. Humboldt Universität zu Berlin, School of Mind and Brain.

2013-2016: Cambridge MA student supervisor for the MA course "Psychology and Neurocognition of Language" (Head: Mirjana Bozic; Lorraine Tyler, Matt Davis).

2010-2012: "Neurobiology of Language". Guest Lecturer. Cambridge University, Dept. of Applied Linguistics.

2001: "Computational models of language". Guest Lecturer. University of Pisa.

2000: Computational Linguistics: Seminar for Staff Members and PhD students: University of Pavia: "Automatic dialogue act recognition".

2022:

Carota, F (2022). Cascading neural events in language production: Neuromagnetic evidence. Talk given at the 12th International Workshop on Language Production, Carnegie Mellon University, June 9-11 2022, Pittsburgh, PA, USA.

2019:

Neurocognitive representations of linguistic complexity across different languages. Radboud University, Nijmegen. Invited talk.

Representational Similarity Mapping of lexico-semantic complexity in the human brain: evidence from fMRI. H-Heine Universität Düsseldorf. May 2019. Invited talk.

Spatiotemporal patterns of language comprehension: neuromagnetic evidence. H-Heine Universität Düsseldorf. June 2019. Invited talk.

Neurocognitive representations of lexical complexity. University of Pisa. Invited talk.

Fronto-temporal networks for automatic visual recognition: MEG evidence. MPI. Invited Talk.

2018:

Comparing models of semantic representations in the brain. Freie Universität, Berlin. Invited talk.

Neural representations of morphosyntactic complexity. University of Potsdam, Germany. February 2017. Invited talk.

Cross-linguistic patterns of semantic/pragmatic and linguistic functions in the dual system. University Claude Bernard, Lyon. Invited Talk.

Cortical reflections of conceptual knowledge as revealed by RSA. University of Aix-Marseille. Invited Talk.

2017: Is computational linguistics relevant to neuroscience? How different computational metrics of lexical semantic information are reflected by brain activity patterns during the semantic/pragmatic interpretation of language. Cambridge University. Invited talk.

Representational similarity in the brain and computational language processing: new clues about the neural encoding of word meaning" CNS 2017 Data Blitz.

2016:

Where and how does the brain represent words? A critical review. Freie University, Berlin, Germany. Invited Talk.

Neurocognitive substrates of derivational morphology: evidence from Italian. Potsdam University, Germany.

Word co-occurrence statistics and conceptual taxonomies predict dissociable fMRI information patterns in the brain semantic systems. CNS 2016. Data Blitz and Postdoctoral Award CNS 2016.

2015:

Representational patterns of semantic relationships between and within words. CNC-ISC, Lyon, France. Invited Talk.

More than words: lexical-semantic relationships in the brain semantic systems. UCL. Invited Talk.

2014: Co-occurrence and taxonomy are reflected by the similarity patterns in distinct cortical networks, Cambridge University, UK.

2013: Neurobiological systems for nonconcatenative morphology in Arabic. University of Cambridge, UK.

2012: Representational similarity among conceptual categories in the fronto-temporal language systems. Freie Univerity, Berlin.

2011: Latent semantic analysis reflects the categorical structure of concepts in the left inferior frontal gyrus. University of Cambridge, UK.

2010:

Time course of speech act processing. Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, The Netherlands. Invited talk.

Neurophysiological correlates of speech planning. MRC-CBU, UK.

2009: Cortical dynamics of intentional speech-acts: a MEG study. University of Melbourne. Invited Talk.

2006: Dinamiche spazio-temporali dell’attività cerebrale durante la produzione e la percezione del linguaggio: nuove prospettive aperte dalla magnetoencefalografia. University of Vercelli, September 2006. Invited Talk.

2004: Gathering Common Ground on the negotiated topic: the role of contrastive markers in Italian. North-eastern Illinois University, Chicago. Invited Talk.