dr. L. Drijvers (Linda)

I'm interested in how the brain combines what you see and what you hear during natural, face-to-face communication.

Face-to-face communication often consists of an audio-visual binding between auditory input and visual input, such as visible speech and co-speech gestures. These visual signals can help a listener to understand speech in adverse listening conditions, such as in noise, or when you are a non-native listener of a language.

I am interested in the cognitive and neural mechanisms that underlie such multimodal comprehension and production processes. For example, does multimodal language facilitate a listener’s predictions of upcoming speech, and therefore facilitate language production? Is our brain ‘hard-wired’ for processing multimodal language in a natural, face-to-face context?

I use behavioral methods and eye-tracking to study the cognitive underpinnings of these phenomena, and use magnetoencephalography (MEG), (dual-)electroencephalography (dual-(EEG)), and rapid invisible frequency tagging (RIFT) to investigate the neural oscillatory dynamics that support these processes. I do this together with my team, The Communicative Brain lab (see https://lindadrijvers.nl/the-communicative-brain/).

Specifically, I am now using a dual-EEG approach to study how oscillatory dynamics support in situ multimodal interaction, and whether natural, face-to-face communication induces a ‘special mode’ for processing communicative messages. Second, I use rapid invisible frequency tagging to study how listeners allocate their attention to different auditory and visual signals in natural, face-to-face conversations.

I’m also passionate about science communication. Please see KNAW’s Faces of Science for blogs/videos on my research, and follow ScienceBattle's theater schedule to see me defend why I think studying multimodal communication is so important.

Please also see my personal website (https://www.lindadrijvers.nl), or my google scholar profile for my publications.

• Language and Communication

• The Communicative Brain