2021 Friedman Brain Institute Research Scholars
Lipschultz Research Scholar Award
Awardees:
Eva Velthorst, MD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and Seaver Autism
Center for Research and Treatment
Muhammad Parvaz, PhD, Assistant Professor, Psychiatry and
Neuroscience
Project:
Multimodal neurophysiological tracking of conversational speech-to-brain
synchrony in schizophrenia. It has been argued that the interpersonal impairment in schizophrenia is partly caused by difficulties to successfully engage in conversations. Yet, the mechanisms underlying these difficulties are still unknown. Using two robust neurophysiological measures, the proposed research will examine whether a lack of synchrony between spoken words and the listener's brain activity (i.e. speech-to-brain synchrony) in schizophrenia directly affects successful engagement in real-world conversations, and is associated with deficits in interpersonal functioning.
