Fernando Llanos

About

Fernando Llanos is the lab director of the UT Austin Neuro Linguistics Lab, where he oversees research in neurolinguistics, focusing on the processing and acquisition of speech patterns across multiple languages, including indigenous languages in Latin America. His work involves conducting behavioral and neuroscientific studies, analyzing neural signals, and developing computational models related to speech and language processing. He has contributed to understanding neural responses to speech, prosodic patterns, and the neural basis of linguistic principles, with numerous publications in the field. His research aims to advance knowledge of how the brain processes language and speech, integrating neuroscientific methods with linguistic theory.

Research topics

• Artificial Intelligence
• Computer Science
• Neuroscience
• Medicine
• Psychology
• Machine Learning
• Audiology
• Speech recognition
• Linguistics
• Communication

Selected publications

• The neural processing of pitch accents in continuous speech

  Neuropsychologia · 2021-05-11 · 17 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  Pitch accents are local pitch patterns that convey differences in word prominence and modulate the information structure of the discourse. Despite the importance to discourse in languages like English, neural processing of pitch accents remains understudied. The current study investigates the neural processing of pitch accents by native and non-native English speakers while they are listening to or ignoring 45 min of continuous, natural speech. Leveraging an approach used to study phonemes in na…

  PublisherDOI

• Bayesian Semiparametric Longitudinal Drift-Diffusion Mixed Models for Tone Learning in Adults

  Journal of the American Statistical Association · 2020 · 15 citations

  Understanding how adult humans learn nonnative speech categories such as tone information has shed novel insights into the mechanisms underlying experience-dependent brain plasticity. Scientists have traditionally examined these questions using longitudinal learning experiments under a multi-category decision making paradigm. Drift-diffusion processes are popular in such contexts for their ability to mimic underlying neural mechanisms. Motivated by these problems, we develop a novel Bayesian sem…

  DOI

• Language experience during the sensitive period narrows infants’ sensory encoding of lexical tones—Music intervention reverses it

  Frontiers in Human Neuroscience · 2022-07-09 · 14 citations

  articleOpen access

  for phonetic learning (6∼12 months), evidenced by improved native speech processing and declined non-native speech processing, represents an early milestone in language acquisition. We examined the extent that sensory encoding of speech is altered by experience during this period by testing two hypotheses: (1) early sensory encoding of non-native speech declines as infants gain native-language experience, and (2) music intervention reverses this decline. We longitudinally measured the frequency-…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• The emergence of idiosyncratic patterns in the frequency-following response during the first year of life

  JASA Express Letters · 2022-05-01 · 4 citations

  articleOpen access1st author

  The frequency-following response (FFR) is a scalp-recorded signal that reflects phase-locked activity from neurons across the auditory system. In addition to capturing information about sounds, the FFR conveys biometric information, reflecting individual differences in auditory processing. To investigate the development of FFR biometric patterns, we trained a pattern recognition model to recognize infants (N = 16) from FFRs collected at 7 and 11 months. Model recognition scores were used to inde…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Cortical processing of discrete prosodic patterns in continuous speech

  Nature Communications · 2025-03-03 · 3 citations

  articleOpen access

  Prosody has a vital function in speech, structuring a speaker’s intended message for the listener. The superior temporal gyrus (STG) is considered a critical hub for prosody, but the role of earlier auditory regions like Heschl’s gyrus (HG), associated with pitch processing, remains unclear. Using intracerebral recordings in humans and non-human primate models, we investigated prosody processing in narrative speech, focusing on pitch accents—abstract phonological units that signal word prominenc…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Bharath Chandrasekaran

  University of Pittsburgh

  30 shared

• Alexander L. Francis

  Purdue University West Lafayette

  12 shared

• Olga Dmitrieva

  Purdue University System

  8 shared

• T. Christina Zhao

  University of Washington

  8 shared

• Abhra Sarkar

  The University of Texas at Austin

  6 shared

• Amanda A. Shultz

  Purdue University System

  6 shared

• G. Nike Gnanateja

  University of Wisconsin–Madison

  6 shared

• Patricia K. Kuhl

  University of Washington

  6 shared

Labs

• Neuroling LabPI

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