Faculty

Graduate and Undergraduate Research Opportunities

Nicole Y. Y. Wicha, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor
Department of Biology
University of Texas at San Antonio
One UTSA Circle
San Antonio, TX 78249
http://bio.utsa.edu/neurobiology/

Nicole.Wicha@utsa.edu

Office: (210) 458-7013
Lab: (210) 458-7012

 
Chief, Event Related Potentials Lab
Research Imaging Center
University of Texas Health Science Center
7703 Floyd Curl Drive, mc 6240
San Antonio, Texas 79229-3900
http://ric.uthscsa.edu

wicha@uthscsa.edu

Office: (210) 567-8016
Lab: (210) 567-8165

Research Interests

•   Cognitive and neural bases of human language
      - Adult language comprehension under normal and abnormal circumstances
      - Brain basis of bilingualism
      - Aging and language

•   Human brain imaging techniques, such as Event Related Brain Potentials (ERP)
      and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI)

Dr. Wicha's research focuses on understanding how the brain processes language
in real time using both behavioral and brain-imaging techniques, in particular event-
related brain potentials (ERPs), which is a non-invasive direct measure of electrical brain activity with excellent precision in the time domain. Dr. Wicha has used these techniques to study the brain processes underlying language comprehension, such as how the monolingual brain comprehends written and spoken sentences, and when and how different sources of linguistic information (e.g., grammar and word meaning) affect our ability to understand an utterance. She is also currently investigating how the bilingual brain comprehends and maintains two languages simultaneously. Her findings indicate that the brain regions responsible for processing different linguistic information interact over time, and that the brain uses predictive processes to rapidly anticipate upcoming information and facilitate comprehension. She will continue to explore these topics, as well as how physiological factors, such as aging and natural hormonal changes, affect these abilities.

Dr. Wicha is also involved in collaborative efforts that use a cognitive neuroscience approach to study various populations. These include work on how language experience changes basic perception of pitch and tone with Drs. Shalini Narayana (UTHSCSA) and Peter Pfordresher (SUNY Buffalo), how stutterers process sound with Drs. Roger and Jan Ingham (UCSB), processing of facial emotion with Dr. Reiko Graham (Texas State University) and how executive function is affected in children with ADHD with Dr. Steven Pliszka (UTHSCSA). She is also beginning a collaborative effort with Dr. Swathi Kiran, director of the Aphasia Lab at UT Austin, to analyze language comprehension and executive control in bilingual aphasics.

Dr. Wicha holds a PhD in Cognitive Science from the University of California at San Diego, where she received interdisciplinary training in behavioral, computational and brain imaging techniques for addressing questions in Cognitive Neuroscience. She continued her training in Cognitive Neuroscience through the Institute of Neural Computation in La Jolla, California as a post-doctoral fellow. She is now an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at the University of Texas at San Antonio, and holds a cross appointment with the University of Texas Health Science Center through the Research Imaging Center, where she is also the Chief of the ERP laboratory. Dr. Wicha shares with her students her expertise in ERP methodology, experimental training and knowledge of research in cognitive neuroscience, through teaching and laboratory mentorship.

Employment

2005-current          Assistant Professor, Biology, University of Texas at San Antonio

2005-current          Chief, Event Related Potentials Lab, Research Imaging Center, University of Texas Health Science Center
                              at San Antonio

2002-2004              PostDoctoral Fellow, Institute of Neural Computation, La Jolla, CA

Training

2002                     Ph.D., Cognitive Science, University of California at San Diego

1995                     Maîtrise Thesis, Experimental Psychology, Rene Descartes University, Paris, France

1994                     B.A., Psychology, and B.A., Spanish, University of Texas at San Antonio

Teaching

Human Electrophysiology

Cognitive Neuroscience

Recent Publications

Wicha, N. Y. Y., Bates, E. A., Orozco-Figueroa, A., Reyes, I., Hernandez, A., & Gavaldón de Barreto, L. (2005). When zebras become painted donkeys: The interplay between gender and semantic priming in a Spanish sentence context. Language & Cognitive Processes, 20(4), 553-587.

Wicha, N. Y. Y., Moreno, E. M., & Kutas, M. (2004). Anticipating words and their gender: An event-related brain potential study of semantic integration, gender expectancy and gender agreement in Spanish sentence reading. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 16(7), 1272-1288.

Szekely, A., Jacobsen, T., D'Amico, S., Devescovi, A., Andonova, E., Herron, D., Lu, C.C., Pechman, T., Pléh, C., Wicha, N., Federmeier, K., Gerdjikova, I., Gutierrrez, G., Hung, D., Hsu, J., Iyer, G., Kohnert, K., Mehotcheva, T., Orozco-Figueroa, A., Tzeng, A., Tzeng, O., Arévalo, A., Vargha, A., Butler, A., Buffington, R., & Bates, E. (2004). A new on-line resource for psycholinguistic studies. Journal of Memory and Language, 51(2), 247-250.

Wicha, N. Y. Y., Bates, E. A., Moreno, E. M., & Kutas, M. (2003). Potato not Pope: human brain potentials to gender expectation and agreement in Spanish spoken sentences. Neuroscience Letters, 346(3), 165-168.

Wicha, N. Y. Y., Moreno, E. M., & Kutas, M. (2003). Expecting gender: an event related brain potential study on the role of grammatical gender in comprehending a line drawing within a written sentence in Spanish. Cortex, 39(3), 483-508.

Bentrovato, S., Devescovi, A., D'Amico, S., Wicha, N., & Bates, E. (2003). The effect of grammatical gender and semantic context on lexical access in Italian using a timed word-naming paradigm. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 32(4), 417-430.

Bates, E., D'Amico, S., Jacobsen, T., Szekely, A., Andonova, E., Devescovi, A., Herron, D., Lu, C. C., Pechmann, T., Pleh, C., Wicha, N., Federmeier, K., Gerdjikova, I., Gutierrez, G., Hung, D., Hsu, J., Iyer, G., Kohnert, K., Mehotcheva, T., Orozco-Figueroa, A., Tzeng, A., & Tzeng, O. (2003). Timed picture naming in seven languages. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 10(2), 344-380.

 

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