In my research I focus on brain processing and consciousness in these patients, to try to ameliorate diagnostic procedures and to develop new interventions that may help recovery.The study of structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging data has greatly benefitted from the development of sophisticated and efficient algorithms aimed at automating and optimizing the analysis of brain data. This is a condition in which, after severe brain injury, patients are awake but not aware. How do we ever know that someone, other than ourselves, isĬonscious? Philosophical considerations aside, this issue is at the heart of one of the most challenging and least understood conditions of the human brain: the Vegetative State. How is consciousness lost and recovered after severe brain injury?

Does language enable other types of structure-dependent cognition? Does the structure of natural language provide a scaffolding on which to build other forms of high-level cognition? In my research I employ behavioral and fMRI tools in healthy volunteers and patients to address these questions.Ģ. This ability is most clearly displayed in language, but also characterizes other aspects of our cognition such as drawing inferences, performing mental arithmetic or music cognition. What is the relationship between language and thought?ĭoes language make us special? One of the most striking features of human cognition is the ability to generate an infinite number of ideas by combining a finite set of elements according to structure-dependent principles. Consciousness and cognition in coma, vegetative and minimally conscious stateġ.

The interplay between language and thought.

In my laboratory we focus on two of the most fundamental aspects of being human: The laboratory is housed in the Psychology Department, but we are also part of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Ronald Reagan Medical Center at UCLA.

The MontiLab is a research laboratory at the University of California Los Angeles, headed by Dr. Wired Magazine nominates our research as the “ 8th best thing of 2016“ Our work was featured on the November 21 edition of The New Yorker : The Science of Mind Reading

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