The Guediche Laboratory

Sara Guediche, PhD Dr. Guediche

Assistant Professor, Neuroscience

Personal Website:  

Research Summary

Dr. Sara Guediche is a tenure-track Assistant Professor in the Neuroscience program. Using speech and language as a model system, her research focuses on understanding flexibility and plasticity in human perception. She uses a combination of methods including behavioral and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) experiments to tap into the brain mechanisms that underlie adaptive behavior. Committed to an interdisciplinary approach to neuroscience research, she is working to incorporate additional behavioral methods (e.g, eye-tracking), and neuroimaging methods (e.g, Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (MRS) and electrophysiology to deepen our understanding of the neurobiological mechanisms that support the complex processes involved in language. A former chemist by training, she is excited to find new ways to build bridges across traditionally distinct STEM areas such as Chemistry, Biology, Physics, Math and Cognitive Psychology.

Contact Us

The Guediche Lab

Health Sciences Campus

sguediche@augusta.edu

Research Interests

The lab focuses on understanding the neural mechanisms that facilitate adaptive behavior in a changing environment. We investigate these questions in the domain of spoken language processing. We use both functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), with computational analysis tools to advance our understanding of the human functional neuroanatomy of language, and will extend to using MRS in vivo, in humans. 

Behavioral experiments:

Behavioral experiments will be conducted in the College of Science Math in a sound-attenuated room.

  • Micro Audiometrics Corp Earscan 3 Automatic laptops
  • Beyerdynamic DT 770ro studio professional headphones
  • Wearable eyetracking System
  • Recording equipment

Neuroimaging experiments:

FMRI experiments will be conducted at the Human MRI Imaging Core.

  • 3T Siemens Magnetom avida scanner
  • 4-button response box for testing cognitive tasks
  • Insert headphones to use with 64-channel head coil

 

Human MRI Imaging Core

 

Selected Publications

  • Guediche, S, de Bruin, A., Baart, M, & Samuel, AG. (2021). Second-language word recognition in noise: interdependent neuromodulatory effects of semantic context and crosslinguistic interactions driven by word form similarity. Neuroimage, 237, 118168.

 

  • Guediche, S, Baart, M, & Samuel, AG. (2020). Semantic priming effects can be modulated by crosslinguistic interactions during second-language auditory word recognition. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 1-11.

 

  • Guediche, S. (2017). Flexible and adaptive processes in speech perception.  In A. Lahiri, S. Kotzor (Eds.). The speech processing lexicon: neurocognitive and behavioural approaches (pp. 155-186). Berlin, Germany: De Gruyter Mouton.

 

  • Guediche S, Fiez JA, & Holt LL. (2016). Adaptive plasticity in speech perception: effects of external information and internal predictions, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42(7), 1048-59.

 

  • Guediche S, Holt LL, Lim S, Laurent P, & Fiez JA. (2015). Evidence for cerebellar contributions to adaptive plasticity in speech perception. Cerebral Cortex, 7(25),1867-77.

 

  • Guediche S, Blumstein SE, Fiez JA, & Holt LL. (2014). Speech under adverse listening conditions: insights from behavioral, computational, and neuroscience research. Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 7, 126.