{"id":357,"date":"2018-09-12T11:01:50","date_gmt":"2018-09-12T10:01:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/?page_id=357"},"modified":"2025-09-15T10:15:48","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T09:15:48","slug":"cognitive-neuroscience-of-language","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Our research in the cognitive neuroscience of language has two main strands that are both closely linked to our work in\u00a0Sentence Processing<\/a> and Bi-\/Multilingualism.<\/a>\u00a0One strand of research in neurolinguistics utilises EEG and MRI to investigate language processing in different populations of speakers, while a second strand utilises MRI to investigate how bi-\/multilingualism influences brain structure and function.<\/p>\n

The lab has its own\u00a0Brain Products actiCAP EEG system for running ERP experiments. We also have close links to\u00a0the\u00a0Centre for Integrative Neuroscience and Neurodynamics<\/a>, which houses additional EEG systems along with facilities for TMS and MRI.<\/p>\n

Representative Publications
\n<\/strong>Pliatsikas, C. , Antoniou, M., Du\u00f1abeitia, J. A. & Calabria, M. (2025). A comprehensive protocol to study the effects of multilingualism on cognition and the brain in patients with progressive neurological diseases.<\/a> MethodsX<\/em>, 14, 103343.<\/p>\n

Li, J.<\/span>,\u00a0Sujawal, M.<\/span>,\u00a0Bernotaite, Z.<\/span>,\u00a0Cunnings, I.<\/span> &<\/span>\u00a0Liu, F.<\/span><\/span> (2025).\u00a0Auditory and semantic processing of speech-in-noise in autism: a behavioural and EEG study.<\/em><\/a> Autism Research<\/em>. Available online.<\/p>\n

Yu, H., Kang, K., Pliatsikas, C. , Zhou, Y. and Zhang, H. (2025). Age-related differences in speech and gray matter volume: the modulating role of multilingualism.<\/a> NeuroImage<\/em>, 310. 121149.<\/p>\n

Pliatsikas, C. (2024). Examining functional near-infrared spectroscopy as a tool to study brain function in bilinguals.<\/a> Frontiers in Language Sciences,<\/em> 3, 1471133.<\/p>\n

Yee, J.’e.<\/span>,\u00a0Ko\u0159en\u00e1\u0159, M.<\/span><\/span>,\u00a0Sheehan, A.<\/span><\/span> &\u00a0Pliatsikas, C.<\/span><\/span> (2024).\u00a0Subcortical malleability as a result of cognitively challenging experiences: the case of bi-\/multilingualism.<\/a> Current Opinion in Behavioural Sciences, 59<\/em>, 101438.<\/p>\n

Korenar, M., Treffers-Daller, J. and Pliatsikas, C. (2023). Brain structure adapts dynamically to highly demanding bilingual experiences: insights from interpreters and translators.<\/a> Ampersand, 11,<\/em> 100148.<\/p>\n

Korenar, M., Treffers-Daller, J. and Pliatsikas, C. (2023). Dynamic effects of bilingualism on brain structure map onto general principles of experience-based neuroplasticity.<\/a> Scientific Reports, 13,<\/em> 3428.<\/p>\n

Marin-Marin, L., Costumero, V., \u00c1vila, C. and Pliatsikas, C. (2022). Dynamic Effects of Immersive Bilingualism on Cortical and Subcortical Grey Matter Volumes.<\/a>\u00a0Frontiers in Psychology, 13, <\/em>886222.<\/p>\n

Voits, T., Robson, H., Rothman, J. and Pliatsikas, C. (2022). The effects of bilingualism on hippocampal volume in ageing bilinguals.<\/a> Brain Structure and Function,\u00a0227<\/em>, 979\u2013994.<\/p>\n

Cheng, Y., Cunnings, I., Miller, D. & Rothman, J. (2021). Double-number marking matters for both L1 and L2 processing of non-local agreement similarly: An ERP investigation.<\/a> Studies in Second Language Acquisition<\/em>.\u00a0
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

Pliatsikas, C. , Ansaldo, A. I. and Voits, T. (2021). Bilingualism and the declining brain.<\/a> Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism, 11,<\/em> 453-458.<\/p>\n

Pliatsikas, C. , Pereira Soares, S. M., Voits, T., DeLuca, V. and Rothman, J. (2021). Bilingualism is a long-term cognitively challenging experience that modulates metabolite concentrations in the healthy brain.<\/a> Scientific Reports, 11<\/em>. 7090.<\/p>\n

Pliatsikas, C. (2020). Understanding structural plasticity in the bilingual brain: The Dynamic Restructuring Model.<\/a> Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 23,\u00a0<\/em>459-471.<\/p>\n

Pliatsikas, C., DeLuca, V. and Voits, T. (2020). The many shades of bilingualism: language experiences modulate adaptations in brain structure.<\/a> Language Learning, 70,<\/em> 133-149.<\/p>\n

Pliatsikas, C. , Meteyard, L. , Ver\u00edssimo, J., DeLuca, V. , Shattuck, K. and Ullman, M. T. (2020). The effect of bilingualism on brain development from early childhood to young adulthood.<\/a> Brain Structure and Function, 225, 2131-2152.<\/em><\/p>\n

Voits, T., Pliatsikas, C. , Robson, H. and Rothman, J. (2020). Beyond Alzheimer\u2019s disease: can bilingualism be a more generalized protective factor in neurodegeneration?<\/a> Neuropsychologia, 147,<\/em> 107593.<\/p>\n

DeLuca, V., Rothman, J., Bialystok, E. and Pliatsikas, C. (2019). Redefining bilingualism as a spectrum of experiences that differentially affects brain structure and function.<\/a> Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 116<\/em>,\u00a07565-7574.<\/p>\n

DeLuca, V., Rothman, J. and Pliatsikas, C. (2019). Linguistic immersion and structural effects on the bilingual brain: a longitudinal study.<\/a> Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 22,\u00a0<\/em>1160-1175.<\/p>\n

Leminen, A., Smolka, E., Du\u00f1abeitia, J. A. and Pliatsikas, C. (2018). Morphological processing in the brain: the good (inflection), the bad (derivation) and the ugly (compounding).<\/a> Cortex<\/em>, 116,\u00a04-44.<\/p>\n

Roberts, L., Gonz\u00e1lez Alonso, J., Pliatsikas, C. and Rothman, J. (2018). Evidence from neurolinguistic methodologies: can it actually inform linguistic\/ language acquisition theories and translate to evidence-based applications?<\/a> Second Language Research<\/em>, 34<\/em>, 125-143.<\/p>\n

Pliatsikas, C.,\u00a0DeLuca, V.,\u00a0Moschopoulou, E.\u00a0and\u00a0Saddy, J. D.\u00a0(2017). Immersive bilingualism reshapes the core of the brain.<\/a>\u00a0Brain Structure and Function<\/em>, 222<\/em>, 1785-1795.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our research in the cognitive neuroscience of language has two main strands that are both closely linked to our work in\u00a0Sentence Processing and Bi-\/Multilingualism.\u00a0One strand of research in neurolinguistics utilises…Read More ><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":0,"parent":23,"menu_order":9,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"__cvm_playback_settings":[],"__cvm_video_id":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"class_list":["post-357","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nCognitive Neuroscience of Language - Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language - Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Our research in the cognitive neuroscience of language has two main strands that are both closely linked to our work in\u00a0Sentence Processing and Bi-\/Multilingualism.\u00a0One strand of research in neurolinguistics utilises...Read More >\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-09-15T09:15:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/Lab-Pictures\/scanner-300x223.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/\",\"name\":\"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language - Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2018-09-12T10:01:50+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-09-15T09:15:48+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Our Research\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/\",\"name\":\"Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab\",\"description\":\"University of Reading\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language - Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language - Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab","og_description":"Our research in the cognitive neuroscience of language has two main strands that are both closely linked to our work in\u00a0Sentence Processing and Bi-\/Multilingualism.\u00a0One strand of research in neurolinguistics utilises...Read More >","og_url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/","og_site_name":"Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab","article_modified_time":"2025-09-15T09:15:48+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/25\/Lab-Pictures\/scanner-300x223.jpg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/","name":"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language - Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/#website"},"datePublished":"2018-09-12T10:01:50+00:00","dateModified":"2025-09-15T09:15:48+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/cognitive-neuroscience-of-language\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Our Research","item":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/ourresearch\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Cognitive Neuroscience of Language"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/#website","url":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/","name":"Psycholinguistics and Neurolinguistics Lab","description":"University of Reading","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/357","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=357"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/357\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2232,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/357\/revisions\/2232"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/23"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/research.reading.ac.uk\/psylinglab\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=357"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}