Faculty
Nicole Y. Wicha, Ph.D.
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Areas of Specialization
- bilingual brain
- human electrophysiology
- language and math cognition
- neurobiology of human language
Education
Ph.D. in Cognitive Science; University of California, San Diego
M.S. in Cognitive Science; University of California, San Diego
B.A. in Psychology; University of Texas at San Antonio
B.A. in Spanish; University of Texas at San Antonio
Research Interests
Dr. Wicha’s research focuses on understanding the time course of electrophysiological brain activity supporting human language. Her lab uses both behavioral and brain imaging techniques, in particular the measurement of event related brain potentials (ERPs), a real time direct measure of continuous electrical brain activity. She has used this method to study language comprehension in healthy young and older adults.
Currently, a primary focus in her lab is in understanding the unique processing capabilities of the bilingual brain, and how being bilingual affects other aspects of cognition. She is currently funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development to study the neural mechanisms supporting arithmetic in the bilingual brain, in both children and adults.
Training Opportunities
Undergraduate, graduate and postdoctoral positions may be available for training in the Wicha Lab: Brain, Language, and Cognition. Technologies and Methods used include electroencephalogram (EEG), event related brain potentials (ERP), behavioral paradigms in language comprehension and math cognition, and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).
Publications
Click here for a list of publications.
