Join us on Friday, 2/6 from 9-10am in Arjona 339.

The Cognitive Science Program is hosting a casual “Meet the Directors” drop-in event. Feel free to stop by and meet Dr. Dimitris Xygalatas, the Director of the COGS Program, Dr. Adrian Garcia-Sierra, our COGS Director of Undergraduate Studies, and Crystal Mills, the program coordinator for COGS. Whether you have questions to ask or you just want to introduce yourself, please come by!

You can’t make it, but you have questions? Email us at cogsci@uconn.edu.

Talk Co-hosted by COGS & ECOM: Dr. Cat Hobaiter from the University of St Andrews

Date/Time: Friday, 11/14/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 205

Bio: Cat is a field primatologist who has spent the past 20 years studying wild primates across Africa. She is a Professor in Origins of Mind at the University of St Andrews where she leads the Wild Minds Lab. The main focus of her research is the communication and cognition of wild apes. Through long-term field studies she explores what the behaviour of modern apes living in their natural environment tells us about their minds, as well as about the evolutionary origins of our own behaviour. She is the director of three long-term chimpanzee field-sites in Uganda and Guinea.

Talk Title: Storytelling apes: ape gesture and the evolution of human language

Abstract: Are you sitting comfortably? Then I’ll begin. Three years ago, I was on a remote expedition with a small group of people with whom I had essentially no language in common. Over the weeks we found built huts, mapped the area, cooked, ate, and laughed together. We started to swap a few phrases, but most of our daily life was managed without language. A long list of human behaviours has been proposed as the reason we have language. But decades of research with other apes have shown us that 1) they have rich systems of flexible, intentional, meaningful, communication, and also that 2) apes and other species do not need language to learn from each other, to organize where and when to forage, to learn cultural knowledge about tools and songs, to co-ordinate hunting, or navigate social politics. It starts to look like human language didn’t evolve for anything useful. But could we simply have been looking in the wrong place? Ten years ago, anthropologist Polly Wiessner made the provocative suggestion that fire was the fundamental driver of human social behaviour. While the day-to-day conversations of the forager peoples she worked with were about mundane practicalities and gossip, fireside conversations are different: they are used for telling stories. I will review what we have learned about other apes’ rich systems of communication so far, and ask—at the end of the day—are we the storytelling ape?

Meetings: Dr. Hobaiter will be available for meetings at UConn from 11/12 – 11/14. If you are interested in meeting with her on any of these days or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Attached is the talk flyer for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions.

Dear Members of the UConn Neuro Community,

On behalf of the Neuroscience Steering Committee, you are cordially invited to the 28th ANNUAL NEUROSCIENCE AT STORRS SYMPOSIUM on Thursday, November 6th, 2025, from 3:30pm – 8:30pm in The Dodd Center / Bousfield Building on the Storrs campus.

This annual event is sponsored by IBACS and brings together the brain science community at UConn/UConn HEALTH from across diverse departments, schools, and colleges. The event is supported by the BME department (this year’s host), and the departments of PNB, Psychological Sciences, and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The 28th Annual NEUROSCIENCE AT STORRS is packed with an inspiring keynote lecture, exciting short-format research talks, and poster presentations. All events are open to interested undergraduates, graduate students, postdocs, staff, and faculty from across UConn departments and schools.

This year’s Keynote Speaker is Dr. Nima Mesgarani, PhD, Associate Professor at the Zuckerman Mind, Brain, and Behavior Institute at Columbia University. Dr. Mesgarani is an internationally recognized scholar and leader in neural engineering and auditory neuroscience. He is a pioneer in the study of neural circuits underlying speech processing and made several key contributions to the development of AI models for automatic speech processing and brain computer interfaces for speech recognition. For information, please visit: https://naplab.ee.columbia.edu/

This is a GENERAL CALL for:

•                     POSTERS: Poster presentations from trainees (graduate students and postdocs) from UConn, UConn HEALTH or other local institutions (DEADLINE for submission: Tuesday, Nov. 4th)

•                     DATA BLITZ TALKS: Each talk is 3 mins and 3-4 PPT slides, 2 mins for questions, and limited to trainees (graduate students or postdocs) from UConn or UConn HEALTH (DEADLINE for submission: Monday, Nov. 3rd)

•                     REGISTRATION: Everyone is welcome, please register as soon as possible!

Please submit your applications for giving a poster presentation or Data blitz talk, as well as registration, at the bottom of the website: https://neuroscience.uconn.edu/28th-annual-neuroscience-at-storrs-2/

Neuroscience at Storrs has always been a fun and interactive showcase for our vibrant brain science community here at UConn, please spread the word and participate!

For general questions, please contact Sabato Santaniello (sabato.santaniello@uconn.edu) in the Biomedical Engineering Department.

Thanks!

The Neuroscience Steering Committee:

Alexander Jackson (PNB)

John Salamone and Heather Read (Psych)

Gregory Sartor (Pharm)

Sabato Santaniello (BME)

Date/Time: Friday, 10/3/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 302

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Tamis-LeMonda during the day or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Talk Title: Word learning in context: Disambiguating the ambiguous

Abstract: The pace and breadth of early vocabulary development is impressive to say the least. Infants grow from producing their first words around 12 months to using over 500 words by 2 ½ years. How do infants crack the code to acquire so many words in a relatively short period of time? Our theoretical framework emphasizes the embodied and embedded nature of learning: Infants actively engage with their environments in the presence of socially responsive partners who provide semantically relevant input within a tight time window during highly specific activity contexts. The tight temporal connection between infant action, caregiver speech, and activity context cuts across word classes—nouns, verbs, adjectives, prepositions—thereby functioning to ‘disambiguate the ambiguous’.

We are excited to announce that Language Fest 2025 will be held on the late afternoon and early evening of Wednesday, April 16^th in Konover Auditorium (spoken program) and Bousfield Psychology Building Atrium (poster sessions).   

Language Fest is a university-wide research conference that welcomes the full cross-disciplinary community of language researchers at UConn for a day of sharing results, ideas, methodologies, and fostering future interdisciplinary collaborations. Researchers from all disciplines of the language sciences and at all career stages are welcome and encouraged to submit their work. The event is made possible with the support of the Institute for Brain and Cognitive Sciences (IBACS). 

This year’s program will feature a graduate student symposium showcasing the diversity of methodologies used to study language, a data blitz session, an undergraduate commencement speaker, and poster sessions. Further details about submission and registration forms will be provided soon.

For any questions about Language Fest, please e-mail: langfest@uconn.edu and visit our website https://languagefest.uconn.edu/.

We look forward to your attendance and participation! 

UConn LangFest Organizing Committee

Emma Wing

Jiabao Fan

Kaya LeGrand

Menghan Yang

Portia Washington

Briana Ashton

Mikayla Robinson

Melanie Stroud

Dr. Umay Suanda

Date/Time: Friday, 3/7/25 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 201

Bio: Brian Boyd, Ph.D., is the William C. Friday Distinguished Professor in the UNC School of Education and interim director of the Frank Porter Graham Child Development Institute at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He was previously the director of the Juniper Gardens Children’s Project at the University of Kansas. Boyd is quite engaged in research that involves the most vulnerable, and often marginalized, populations. As a special educator by training, much of his research has involved the development and evaluation of evidence-based practices that could be implemented within school and home contexts. His more recent work has focused on how issues of implicit bias and race affect the outcomes of children with and without disabilities. Boyd’s research has been continuously funded by federal agencies such as the Institute of Education Sciences and National Institutes of Health. He is past vice president of the International Society for Autism Research. He also serves on multiple national boards that are dedicated to improving the outcomes of autistic persons and those from historically underserved communities.

Talk Title: Community-Engaged Research in Autism: Centering Marginalized Communities

Abstract: Community-engaged research (CER) is essential for addressing disparities in autism research by prioritizing the voices and experiences of marginalized communities. This presentation examines CER principles, challenges, and ethical considerations in working with diverse populations. It concludes with a discussion of how my research applies CER to foster meaningful partnerships, amplify community perspectives, and promote equity in autism services and outcomes.

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Boyd or attending dinner on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu

Flyer is attached for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions. 

Date/Time: Friday, 11/8/24 from 4:00pm – 5:30pm EST

Location: McHugh Hall 202

Bio: Viorica Marian is a cognitive scientist at Northwestern University, where she is the Sundin Endowed Professor and Director of the Bilingualism Lab. She studies the relationship between language and mind, with a focus on the psycholinguistics of bilingualism and multilingualism. Dr. Marian received her PhD in Psychology from Cornell University and previously served as Chair of the National Institutes of Health Study Section on Language and Communication and as Chair of the Northwestern Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders. She is the recipient of the American Association for the Advancement of Science John McGovern Award, The Psychonomic Society Mid-Career Award, the Clarence Simon Award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring, and the Editor’s Award for best paper from JSLHR. Marian’s new popular science book “The Power of Language” is being translated into 12 languages and counting.

Talk Title: The Power of Language: How the Codes We Use to Think, Speak, and Live Transform Our Minds

Abstract: Bilingualism and multilingualism have profound consequences for individuals and societies. Learning multiple languages changes not only how we use language, but also how we perceive the world, what we remember, how we learn, our creativity, decision making, and identity. I will present eye-tracking, mouse-tracking, and neuroimaging evidence showing that multiple languages continuously interact in the mind. I will conclude with a call for placing the study of language-mind interaction and multilingualism among the core areas of scientific investigation if we are to gain an accurate understanding of humanity’s potential.

Meetings: If you are interested in meeting with Dr. Marian during the day or attending dinner in the evening on Friday, please email crystal.mills@uconn.edu. 

Flyer is attached for posting. Please email Crystal if you have questions. 

The Cognitive Science Program and the Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences Department are co-hosting a talk on 11/10!   

Speaker: Dr. Samuel Mathias, Professor of Psychology from the Department of Psychiatry at the Harvard Medical School

Time & Location: 4PM, Friday November 10, 2023, in McHugh Hall Room 206