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We are very fortunate to collaborate with researchers and clinicians based in The Netherlands, Europe (e.g., Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Belgium), and overseas (e.g., Australia, Argentina, USA, Japan). Please find below some of our most successful collaborations:
Thomas Picht, Tizian Rosenstock - Image Guidance Lab of the Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Germany)
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), particularly, in temporo-parietal brain areas (Ntemou et al., 2023, 2024, see image below). We have also unveiled subjective impairments in individuals with brain tumors, emphasizing difficulties in language and memory (Rybka et al., 2024). We are currently working on the development of new object and action association tasks. Some of this work has already been piloted!
Ntemou et al. (2024). 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.
Emmanuel Mandonnet, Emmanuelle Volle - Lariboisière Hospital and Paris Brain Institute (France)
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 verbal fluency and word association tasks in people with brain tumors differ from those of healthy individuals (see figure). We 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. (subm). Funded by the University of Groningen, Lariboisière Hospital, and the European Commission (European Master's in Clinical Linguistics, EMCL).
Annelien Duits, Nikki Janssen - Radboud University Medical Center Nijmegen (The Netherlands)
We learned from their vast experience assessing people with Parkinson's disease before and after Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) surgery. Together, we investigated word properties of animal fluency in this population and showed how item-based measures indicate difficulties in executive functions and language, helping the current literature move forward.
Rofes et al. (2025). Some of this work was supported by a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
Lisi Beyersmann, Nichol Castro - Macquarie University, University of Buffalo (Australia, USA)
We focusing on understanding how morphological information can be processed using free association and a new morphological fluency task. Some of this work is being conducted by Jo-Anne van der Sluijs, one of our PhD candidates. We are also thankful to Alessia Rossetto who helped us with one of the studies. We are very excited to see how the research community welcomes this new line of research and also to understand the implications of this work in clinical practice.
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).
Giannantonio Spena, Federico D'Agata, Francesco Guerrini - Neurosurgery San Matteo 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 found that the production of objects and actions partially dissociates in the brain. These findings are relevant to assess people with brain tumors during surgery. Currently, we are working on further peri- and intraoperative assessments, also in people undergoing surgery for Parkinson's disease.
Rofes et al. (2024). Funded by the University of Groningen, Macquarie University, and The University of Trento under of a joint doctoral program (International Doctorate for Experimental Approaches to Language And Brain, IDEALAB).
Anne Buunk, Hanne-Rinck Jeltema, Marc van Dijk, Gea Drost - University Medical Center Groningen (The Netherlands)
We 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 verbal fluency tasks before and after surgery.
MOOC language testing in awake surgery (Bastiaanse, Ohlerth, UMCG). We are thankful for the financing by the University of Groningen (Behavioral and Cognitive Neurosciences and Faculty of Arts).
Guillaume Herbet, Sylvie Moritz-Gasser, Hugues Duffau - Guy de Chauliac Hospital, University of Montpellier (France)
We have found a behavioral and neuroanatomical dissociation between object naming and non-verbal semantic association in people with brain tumors after surgery. The case of people who can name but are impaired in non-verbal semantic association is quite unique, as it challenges current views of how language is processed. We are arguing this could be possible due to naming with an impoverished lexico-semantic system and/or difficulties with semantic control. We are currently co-supervising master's thesis.
Rofes et al. (in prep). Lesion overlap of individuals who can name but are impaired in non-verbal semantic association.
Jeff Zemla - Syracuse University (USA)
We are studying differences between category and subcategory fluency in healthy individuals (e.g., animals vs farm animals), stressing that these tasks may engage different mental search mechanisms. We are using network science and also simulated some of this human data with a Large Language Model (LLM) opening the door to new research lines.
Rofes, van Dijk, & Zemla (subm.). We are thankful to the European Commission (European Master's in Clinical Linguistics, EMCL) to fund a research/teaching visit.
Joanna Sierpowska, Andreu Gabarrós, Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells - The Bellvitge Biomedical Research Institute (IDIBELL, Spain)
We have worked on the postoperative outcomes of people with brain tumors, with a focus on language and cognition (Gasa-Roqué et al., 2023; Sierpowska et al., 2022).
We are thankful to the European Commission (European Master's in Clinical Linguistics, EMCL) to fund master's students.
Fleur van Ierschot, Martine van Zandvoort - University Medical Center Utrecht, Utrecht University (The Netherlands)
We are focusing the spontaneous speech of people with brain tumors before, during, and after surgery. The intraoperative analyses are particularly interesting, as they could help us derive objective data during language monitoring and predict language impairments after surgery. We recently published a book chapter on language testing during awake brain surgery (van Ierschot & Rofes, 2025).
van Ierschot & Rofes (2025)
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