Question: what is the objective of your research? how can it be used to benefit society?

Carolyn McGettigan answered on 16 Mar 2010:

My main aim is to run studies that can help us find out more about how our brains process speech, both when we listen to it and when we speak. I’m interest in all aspects of spoken communication, for example how we learn to tune in to an unfamiliar accent, how we recognise people by their voice alone, how our brains process emotional information in the voice, and the brain areas involved with other social aspects of conversation. Most of my research is focussed on finding out how the ‘normal’ adult brain works, and while this doesn’t have direct applications to medical treatment, it is very important that we build a knowledge base for potential therapies (e.g. helping stroke patients to speak again) and treatments in the future. However, there are hopefully other benefits of my work for other people. If I teach my students well at UCL, I might inspire some of them to go on to do good research or become clinicians. I also hope that taking part in this event is fun for the school students and teachers I’ve chatted to and answered questions from, and even if none of you want to be a scientists I see it as beneficial that we’ve been able to share ideas. I hope you agree!