Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

Sophie is Deputy Director and Head of the Speech Communications Group at UCL's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience. She is a member of the British Psychological Society, the Society for Neuroscience, the Cognitive Neuroscience Society and the Experimental Psychology Society. She was elected a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2012 and a Fellow of the British Academy in 2016.

Sophie’s research investigates the neural basis of vocal communication – how our brains process the information in speech and voices and how our brains control the production of our voice. Within this, her research covers the roles of streams of processing in auditory cortex, hemispheric asymmetries and the interaction of speech processing with attentional and working memory factors.​

Other interests include individual differences in speech perception and plasticity in speech perception, since these are important factors for people with cochlear implants. Sophie is also interested in the expression of emotion in the voice. In particular, her research in recent years has focused on the neuroscience of laughter. 

The psychology of laughter - an exploration of a social emotion

While we often associate laughter with humour, it has its roots in much older mammalian behaviours, associated with social bonding and play. In this talk I will describe some of the interesting and important aspects of studying laughter. I will also think more generally about the value of studying positive emotions, like laughter, and how this can help us map between emotional and social aspects of communication and interactions.