People

Corina Lab Members

David Corina, PhD, Professor, Linguistics: tel: 530-297-4421 office: 267 Cousteau Pl., Room 152
Dr. Corina's research focuses on understanding the neural bases of higher cognitive function, specifically language and memory. He is interested in specifying functional and neuroanatomical models of human behavior and elucidating the degrees of plasticity within systems related to language and memory. His research encompasses psychology, linguistics, computational modeling and neuroscience, incorporating techniques that include self-designed behavioral tests, functional imaging (fMRI and functional spectroscopy), cortical stimulation and single unit recording. Investigating the neural plasticity of primary human language areas in the brain, Dr. Corina conducts studies that compare language processing in deaf users of American Sign Language and hearing users of spoken language. He is also investigating the perceptual and memory systems that underlie human actions, including American Sign Language. These studies make use of memory paradigms to understand the similarities and differences between processing different classes of human actions. Dr. Corina collaborates on research in adults with focal epilepsy to shed light on the neural systems involved in performing language and memory tasks. He also designs paradigms for functional neuroimaging to investigate language function in children with learning disabilities.

Michael Grosvald, MA (UC Berkeley, UC Davis) , Graduate Student, Corina Lab: tel: 530-297-4427 office: 267 Cousteau Pl., Room 167C keywords: Phonetics, Phonology, Psycholinguistics, ASL, Vowel-to-Vowel Coarticulation, ERP, ESL, Computational Linguistics, Second Language Acquisition and Development (SLAD)
Mike Grosvald has received Masters degrees in Mathematics (UC Berkeley) and Linguistics (UC Davis) and is now working toward his PhD in Linguistics at UC Davis. His projects in the Corina Lab focus on phonetics and phonology and include work on vowel-to-vowel coarticulation in spoken language and its possible analogs in signed language, processing of signs and human actions by signers and non-signers, and the use of ERP methodology to investigate the perceptibility of sub-phonemic contrasts. A one time English teacher abroad (Prague, Berlin, Taipei), his other interests include second (and third...) language acquisition, travel, classic movies, and computational linguistics.

Sarah Hafer, BA (University of New Mexico) , Junior Specialist, Corina Lab: tel: 530.297.4427 (Sorenson Videophone) office: 267 Cousteau Place, Room 167B keywords: American Sign Language linguistics, linguistics, language acquisition
I grew up in both southern California and Idaho, in a town of 3,000 population, within short distances from equine and bovine pastures. Here at CMB, I work as a full-time junior specialist where I assist Dr. Corina with many various projects and research. I also teach ASL Linguistics courses at Berkeley City College (formerly Vista Community College) in Berkeley and American River College in Sacramento as well as teaching at Sacramento State. I hold a baccalaureate honors in Linguistics from the U. of New Mexico and minored in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) there. I also aim to do grad studies in Linguistics with a specialization in language acquisition for both L1 and L2 Deaf and hearing ASL users. I come from a fourth generation Deaf family and am Deaf myself. My fire for linguistics originally developed probably from when I would hang out at the Salk Institute from age 3 to 7. My mother had worked as a research assistant in Dr. Ursula Bellugi's American Sign Language lab at the Salk Institute for a while and there I would play with words in ASL with Mom's co-workers as well as asking them lots of questions about ASL.

Heather Knapp, PhD (University of Washington) , Postdoctoral Scholar, Corina Lab: tel: 530-297-4459 office: 267 Cousteau Pl, Rm 167C keywords: Psycholinguistcs, Object Perception, Visual Attention
Heather is a Postdoctoral Scholar for the multi-disciplinary fMRI research team on the Visual Language and Visual Learning (VL2) Science of Learning Center grant, funded by the National Science Foundation. The purpose of VL2 is to gain a greater understanding of the biological,cognitive, linguistic, sociocultural, and pedagogical conditions that influence the acquisition of language and knowledge through the visual modality. Her areas of expertise include psycholinguistics, visual attention, and object perception. Heather also has interests in the burgeoning field of neuroethics, which concerns itself with ethical, political, and legal issues arising from advancements in the field of neuroscience. She holds degrees in Cognitive Psychology, Linguistics, and Neurobiology.

Christian Lachaud, PhD (University of Geneva) , Postdoctoral Scholar, Corina Lab: As part of the Corina lab, Christian is building a database for American Sign Language (AoA, Familiarity), contributing to behavioral investigations about the neural representations of words in ASL signers and developing projects with research students. In his personal projects, Christian continues his investigations (neuroimaging and behavioral) about the role of the lexical neighborhood and lexical superimpositions on word recognition in normal adults. Christian is also finishing a few projects developed at the University of Geneva, Switzerland (Dr. O. Renaud, MAD, FPSE, J.P. Goldman, Departement de Linguistique) where he received his Ph.D. (http://www.unige.ch/cyberdocuments/theses2005/LachaudC/meta.html)

Brandon Loudermilk, MA (University of Texas) , Graduate Student, Corina Lab: tel: 530-297-4427 office: 267 Cousteau Pl., Room 167 keywords: Cognitive neurolinguistics, Psycholinguistics, Second Language Acquisition
I have research interests in a wide range of linguistic sub-disciplines including psycholinguistics, cognitive neurolinguistics, complex adaptive systems, and neural network modeling of language (dys)function. Current projects include: identifying neuroanatomical correlates of language representation through cortical stimulation mapping; examining the characteristics and time course of phonological paraphasias during the Wada test (intracarotid sodium amobarbital procedure, IAP); developing backward propagation multi-layer neural networks to model language (dys)function; and using Optimality Theory (OT) to analyze lexical-phonological deficits in language disorders such as aphasia and apraxia of speech.

Mary Catherine Mendoza, BS (UC Davis) , Junior Specialist/Lab Manager, Corina Lab: tel: 530-747-3817 office: 267 Cousteau Pl., Room 154
Mary is involved in all aspects of our research. She earned a B.S. in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior from UCD and has experience conducting fMRI experiments from an NIH internship.

Travis Taylor, BA, Undergraduate Assistant, Corina Lab: Travis brings his professional experience in motion graphics to the production of our experiments. He has an A.A. in Natural Sciences and majors in Mathematics. Travis is also a fluent ASL user.

Kearnan Welch, Graduate Student, Corina Lab: Kearnan assists in various aspects of the lab especially in subject recruitment. He is fluent in ASL and majors in Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior with a minor in Nutrition.

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