Research

The main goal of our research is to better understand and preserve language capacities in people who undergo brain surgery. The bulk of our research revolves around the study of mild language impairments in people with brain tumors who undergo awake brain surgery, including the development of tasks to assess where language is in the brain before and during surgery. We have also recently focused on the study of language impairments in people with Parkinson's disease who undergo Deep Brain Stimulation surgery. We are particularly keen to study language from a behavioral perspective (e.g., language models, item-based measures, network metrics). We also use neuroimaging techniques (e.g., navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, Direct Electrical Stimulation, tractography).

We are very fortunate to collaborate with researchers (neurolinguists, cognitive scientists) and clinicians (neurosurgeons, neurologists, speech therapists, neuropsychologists) from the University of Groningen, other Dutch institutions, and other countries (e.g., Germany, France, Italy, Belgium, Argentina, Australia, USA). Below is a list with some of our research projects and collaborators. For more information regarding our research and collaborators, please check our publications.

Thomas Picht and Tizian Rosenstock - Image Guidance Lab of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany)
We are financed by a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO - VIDI), the European Commission (European Master's in Clinical Linguistics, EMCL) and very generous funding from the University of Groningen and Charité. We have supervised numerous master's students, one PhD project to completion, and we have on-going PhD projects with them. We have tested object and action naming tasks with navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) and Direct Electrical Stimulation (DES) and found that there exists a partial dissociation in the processing of specific verb types (transitives vs intransitives) in temporo-parietal brain areas (Ntemou et al., 2023, 2024, see image below). We have also unveiled subjective impairments in individuals with brain tumors, with a particular emphasis on difficulties in language and memory (Rybka et al., 2024). With this group, we are currently working on the development and testing of object and action association tasks. Some of this work has already been piloted! This is a new and exciting way to detect and preserve language difficulties in a core aspect of language (i.e., semantics).

Ntemou et al. (2024)

Emmanuel Mandonnet and Emmanuelle Volle - Lariboisière Hospital and Paris Brain Institute (France)
We are thankful for generous funding from the University of Groningen, Lariboisière Hospital, and the European Commission (European Master's in Clinical Linguistics, EMCL). We have supervised numerous master's students and we are currently supervising a PhD project on relatedness-based measures and network metrics to assess and detect language impairments in people with brain tumors (Gaudet et al., 2024). One of our main findings is that network metrics better reflect semantic understanding rather than lexical processing. We are currently working on a couple of studies indicating that network metrics obtained with fluency tasks and word association tasks in people with brain tumors differ from those of healthy individuals (see figure). Our team has also focused on examining the value of Direct Electrical Stimulation (DES) to study and understand how people produce and comprehend language (Rofes et al., 2019). This latter publication has received a lot of attention from international colleagues.

Gaudet et al. (in prep)

Anne Buunk, Hanne-Rinck Jeltema, Marc van Dijk, and Gea Drost - University Medical Center Groningen (The Netherlands)
We are thankful for the financing by the University of Groningen (Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences and Faculty of Arts). We have supervised numerous master's students. Some of our work with this team has focused on understanding how postoperative behavioral scores in people with brain tumors relate to return to work. Also, we have identified mild language impairments with spontaneous speech tasks and examined the value of nTMS to assess language in people with brain tumors (Jeltema et al., 2020). Currently, we are studying the relationship between theory of mind and language. Also, we are implementing spontaneous speech tasks during awake brain surgery. With this group, Roelien Bastiaanse and Ann-Katrin Ohlerth developed a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on awake brain surgery (click on the image below!)

MOOC language testing in awake surgery (Bastiaanse, Ohlerth, UMCG)

Lisi Beyersmann and Nichol Castro - Macquarie University and University of Buffalo (Australia, USA)
Some of the work with this team has been funded by the University of Groningen and Macquarie University under the auspices of a joint doctoral program (International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches to Language And Brain, IDEALAB). We are currently focusing on understanding how morphological information can be processed using free association and new fluency tasks. Some of this work is being conducted by Jo-Anne van der Sluijs, one of our recent PhD candidates. We are also thankful to Alessia Rossetto, another PhD candidate from the IDEALAB who helped us with one of the studies.

Giannantonio Spena, Federico D'Agata, Francesco Guerrini - Neurosurgery unit Matteo Polyclinic Pavia and University of Turin (Italy)
We have discussed advantages and disadvantages of intraoperative tests in awake surgery (Rofes et al., 2015) and compared object and action naming during surgery (Rofes et al., 2017, Rofes et al., 2024, see figure). We are very thankful to this team, as it has trusted in our work for a long time now. One of our main findings with this team is that the production of objects and actions partially dissociates in the brain. These findings are relevant to assess people with brain tumors during surgery. Some of this work would not have been possible without the support of Gabriele Miceli (University of Trento), Roelien Bastiaanse (University of Groningen), and Lyndsey Nickels (Macquarie University) and the International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches to Language And Brain (IDEALAB).

Rofes et al. (2024)

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