Academic Event

Yuliya Yoncheva, Ph.D.

Postdoctoral Fellow, Department of Psychology & Human Development, Peabody College, Vanderbilt University

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Biographical note: Dr. Yoncheva is a cognitive neuroscientist interested in questions at the intersection of attention, learning, and language in typ ically developing and clinical populations. Dr. Yoncheva was awarded an acad emic scholarship to pursue undergraduate studies in neuroscience and mathe matics at Kenyon College. In 2004 she was granted admission to the Neuros cience program at the Weill Cornell Graduate School of Medical Science s. Her training included animal behavioral assays, adult and pediatri c neuroimaging: fMRI, topographic ERP and non-parametric statistic al techniques. Dr. Yoncheva’s thesis work investigate d h ow selective attention to phonology modulates reading-related cor tic al responses. After earning her Ph.D. in 2010, she joined the Educat ion al Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at Vanderbilt University to conduct pos t-doctoral research, examining the impact of selective attention on the rise of expertise as an individual learns novel re ading systems.

Abstract: Selective attention has been well-characterized in systems- level s tudies in the visual and auditory modalities, yet less empirical wor k has e xamined the neural mechanisms by which attentional processes opera te on m ore complex, domain-specific information such as phonological codes wi thin syllables. I have been investigating the notion that sele ctive at tention to phonology plays a central role in modulating perce ptual en coding of spoken and visual word forms, and the integrati on of ph onological and spelling information that is critical to the develo pment of literacy (McCandliss & Yoncheva, 2011). The first part of this talk presents complementary fMRI and high-density ERP studies isol ating the mechanisms that mediate selective attention to phonology and the tempo ral dynamics of their impact. The second part of the talk presen ts dir ect evidence that a learner’s selective attention to phonology d uring training shapes their visual word perception and recruitment of rea d ing expertise. This work provides a model context for further inves t igation of how selective attention might relate to an individual&rs qu o;s learning dynamics during typical and atypical reading devel