Unlocking the brain circuits behind speech in Parkinson’s
Stephanie Forkel’s research focuses on why speech often deteriorates in Parkinson’s disease, despite treatments like medication and deep brain stimulation (DBS). “Speech is incredibly complex, involving over 100 muscles and 10 organs to produce even a single word,” Forkel explains. The neural mechanisms behind speech production and their potential remains unclear “When it breaks down in Parkinson’s, a disorder affecting 11,8 million adults globally, we still don’t fully understand why or how to best treat it.”
By studying how the basal ganglia are connected to other parts of the brain, and by seeing directly how deep brain stimulation (DBS) changes speech, the team hopes to find out which brain networks are most important for speaking clearly and fluently. They will use advanced MRI scans together with tests on patients at Radboudumc, the largest Parkinson’s clinic in the Netherlands, and work closely with researchers in the UK and South Africa.
“This work could transform our understanding of the neuroanatomy of speech,” says Dr. Forkel. “Ultimately, this foundational work will enable more targeted and effective interventions for speech disorders.”
How do babies learn? Measuring the infant brain in action
Babies have so much to learn in such a short period, but how does learning itself develop? In this project, a team led by Marlene Meyer and Robert Oostenveld will follow infants from 5 and 10 months to 2.5 years to answer this pressing question.
One important learning mechanism that has been identified is the ability to extract regularities from the environment, also called statistical learning (SL). Meyer explains: “From just a few months old, infants spot patterns in what they see and hear. It’s essential for picking up language and social skills later on. But we still know surprisingly little about how it develops, or how parents can influence it.”
The team will use a cutting-edge brain imaging method: infant-friendly OPM-MEG. “As one of the first labs, we are in the unique position to harness the advantages of this technique to investigate early learning.” OPM-MEG allows tracking babies’ brain activity with high precision as they process visual and auditory patterns. The study involves about 200 infants and their caregivers, with follow-ups to see how early learning predicts later vocabulary and social abilities.
Insights from this project will provide knowledge for early interventions to foster learning in infancy, with potential impact for later skill acquisition.
“Impactful advances in neuroscience enable us for the first time to tackle these outstanding issues on learning in its infancy,“ Dr. Meyer notes.