BLB | Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab blog

Meet the BLB Lab members

soniamariotti | 12 January 202618 March 2026

Welcome to the Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab! In this post, we introduce our multidisciplinary team working together towards a common goal, while across different areas of expertise and sites around Bristol, UK.

Core Team

Dr Anna Piasecki is an Associate Professor of Psycholinguistics and the academic lead of the Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab. Anna has expertise in bilingualism, first and second language acquisition and adult language processing. Her investigations have spanned various areas of linguistics – including vocabulary, phonology and syntax – as well as the intersection between language, memory and cognition. The main focus of her current work is on applied research, with defined benefits for vulnerable and underrepresented populations.

Mr Neil Barua PhD, FRCS(SN) is a Consultant Neurosurgeon specialising in brain tumour surgery at Southmead Hospital in Bristol, Visiting Professor at UWE Bristol, and the clinical lead of the Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab. His research interests include awake craniotomy, brain/computer interfaces, drug delivery to the brain and quality of life studies. He completed his PhD in Neuroscience at the University of Bristol and has experience of pre-clinical, translational and clinical research. Along with Dr Anna Piasecki and Prof Fiona Cramp he co-supervises PhD students undertaking a range of projects with the ultimate aim of improving quality of life in brain tumour patients.

Mr Will Singleton PhD, FRCS(SN) is a Consultant Paediatric Neurosurgeon at the Bristol Royal Hospital for Children, which a Tessa Jowell Paediatric Neurooncolgy Centre of Excellence. As the paediatric lead at Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab, Will’s clinical expertise lies in paediatric neuro-oncology, epilepsy and functional paediatric neurosurgery, including deep brain stimulation and awake craniotomy. His research interests include paediatric neuromodulation and translational neurosurgery – specifically developing methods of direct central nervous system drug delivery and investigating their utility as novel therapeutic strategies.

Dr Kris Kinsey is a Senior Lecturer in Psychology and member of the Psychological Science Research Group (PSRG) at UWE. His previous research focused on identifying biological and cognitive markers of development related disorders, examining the neural systems that subserve vision, attention and language processing. Kris’s recent multidisciplinary work concerns health and technology with an aim towards developing applied solutions for diagnosing, monitoring and navigating health related issues. In his role at the BLB Lab, Kris supports the team with his expertise in imaging techniques, including MEG, fMRI, EEG, infrared eye-tracking and traditional psychophysical measures.

Hajira Mumtaz is a PhD student at the BLB Lab. Her project focuses on the design of intraoperative tests with increased sensitivity and that can allow for more personalised, comprehensive and valid evaluation of speech function that is beyond single word testing. With a more specific and sensitive battery of language tests as the outcome of her project, Hajira hopes to contribute towards introducing intraoperative tests that can positively impact the quality of life of patients requiring brain tumour surgery. Prior to this, Hajira did an Erasmus Mundus joint MSc degree in Clinical Linguistics (EMCL+) at the Universities of Groningen, Potsdam and Eastern Finland.

T. R. Williamson (Tom) is a PhD student in the BLB Lab. His research is centred around understanding what the nature of neurosurgical language tests should be, and, consequently, what kinds of novel tests can be conceived to better preserve linguistic abilities postopertatively for more diverse patient profiles. To this end, Tom’s work has concentrated on preserving the most basic communicative abilities of patients with more severe neurocognitive, tumour-induced, symptoms, and the more complex linguistic abilities that current tasks do not have the sophistication to reach. Tom has also lectured and supervised undergraduate students at UWE, and does research at Oxford and the University of Southern California.

Sonia Mariotti is a PhD student in the BLB Lab and Associate Lecturer at UWE. Her work is devoted to improving the quality of life of brain tumour patients through the preservation of their communicative abilities. Her research in awake craniotomy language testing focuses on bilingual patients and how to isolate and preserve bilingual components for successful communication. Sonia has previously worked in NHS stroke rehabilitation services, supporting patients with language and cognitive impairments. Her research activities at the BLB Lab are a continuation of her desire to bridge the gap between academia and clinical practice, to aid both practitioners and patients.

Madeleine Farrow is a Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist working with patients with brain tumours at Southmead Hospital, Bristol. She sees neuro oncology patients at diagnosis, as part of a prehabilitation service, provides pre-, intra-, and postoperative language assessment for patients with high grade brain tumours requiring awake language mapping and supports patients in the community through to end of life. As well as awake language mapping, her clinical interests include dysphasia, cognitive communication difficulties and prolonged disorders of consciousness

Dr Margaret Newson, PhD, CPsychol, is a Consultant Clinical Neuropsychologist who recently joined the Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab as an honorary Visiting Fellow after retiring from North Bristol NHS Trust. Her clinical work focused on diagnostic assessment, cognitive assessment during awake brain surgery and predicting neurosurgical outcomes. During her career, she has enjoyed working in various clinical teams with excellent colleagues, including Neurologists, Neurosurgeons, Neuropsychiatrists, Nurses, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists. Her research interests include improving measurement of cognitive functions, early diagnosis of dementia, and optimising outcome following brain surgery.

Molly Cree is a Speech and Language Therapist with over 10 years of experience working with patients who have acquired communication and swallowing impairments. Among other areas, she has worked within stroke rehabilitation, neuro-oncology and neurosurgery to assess, diagnose and treat various communication difficulties in a holistic, person-centred way. She has worked closely with the team at UWE to implement testing materials with patients undergoing awake craniotomies and continues to have a keen interest in this area of Speech and Language Therapy.

The clinical team at Southmead comprises other key people, including many registrar neurosurgeons, neurophysiologists, anaesthetists and oncology nurses. We will be adding their details in due course.

Our Honorary Research Associates and Assistants

Our work is frequently supported by students at different stages of their academic journeys. From undergraduate student volunteers and interns, through to postgraduate researchers and international collaborators, they all contribute in so many key ways to our overarching mission. Some of them are featured here but there are many more, current and past, and we are very grateful they continue to support our work.

Filipa Da Costa Gaspar is our absolutely brilliant illustrator, who has with the utmost creativity, patience and professionalism, created many hundreds of images for our clinical resources; first and foremost for BOATIM. Filipa studied BA(Hons) Animation at UWE and is now a self-employed production designer, 2D artist and illustrator.

Joshua Barraclough is a research assistant and volunteer at the BLB Lab. Utilising his speech analysis expertise, Josh is working alongside Hajira Mumtaz and supports our IMPACT project. The groundbreaking details and insights from this project will be revealed shortly.

Lydia Wiernik is an Honorary Research Associate at the BLB Lab. In her role, she helps out with stimuli creation, data analysis, and study design, and is always happy to contribute insight from her knowledge of signed languages. Her interests are in neurolinguistics and sign language linguistics, and especially the intersection of the two. While collaborating with the BLB Lab, Lydia has completed her undergraduate degree at the University of Edinburgh, focusing on the influence of sign language acquisition on cognitive strategies for non-linguistic perspective taking, and the relationship between embodiment, multimodality, and the brain.

Bailey Ajayi is a recent UWE Psychology graduate and a research assistant in the BLB Lab. Under the supervision of Sonia Mariotti, he supported EEG data collection and participant coordination for a project exploring bilingualism. He also completed a dissertation investigating perceptual learning using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS). Bailey has a strong interest in consciousness and cognitive neuroscience and will be pursuing an MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience at the University of Sussex. His time in the lab has strengthened his research skills and deepened his passion for brain-based science.

Aleksandra (Sasha) Trepalenko was an international student enrolled in the Erasmus Mundus European Master’s in Clinical Linguistics (EMCL++) programme. As part of that programme, Sasha spent her final semester at the BLB lab working on her internship and thesis alongside Tom Williamson. For her internship, Sasha worked on annotation of gesture experiment materials, which deepened her knowledge of non-verbal means of communication. Using these new insights, Sasha’s thesis went on to explore a new multitasking paradigm for potential use in awake brain surgeries. We designed a new combination of tasks and tested it in healthy native British English speakers.

Eimear McKnight studied linguistics as an undergraduate and master’s student at the University of Cambridge. Their interests span theoretical syntax and phonology, Chinese, and sign language syntax. In the BLB Lab, Eimear has assisted with the annotation and analysis of corpora, and has enjoyed learning more about the neuropsychology of language. They have worked in the medical publishing sector as an Editorial Coordinator, and have recently taken up doctoral studies at the QMUL.

Rachel Peal was a research assistant at the BLB Lab. Working with Tom Williamson, she supported the development of materials, study design, data analysis, and acting as a confederate, Rachel has been crucial to data collection. As a graduate UWE Psychology student, she is interested in the psychological mechanisms underlying multimodal communication and provides a psychological perspective to conceptualisation and theory development. Rachel has enjoyed developing her research design and analysis skills, which will benefit her in many future endeavours and chosen career path.

Get in touch with us on BLB.Lab@uwe.ac.uk us if you have any questions or are keen to join our team!

List

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

Open-Access Resource: The British Object and Action Naming Test for Intraoperative Mapping (BOATIM)

Fig. Example images from BOATIM. We are proud and excited to share our two key clinical resources – an Object …

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

Meet the BLB Lab members

Welcome to the Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab! In this post, we introduce our multidisciplinary team working together towards a …

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

Why we do what we do

At the Brain, Language and Behaviour (BLB) Lab, we are a group of researchers and clinicians united by one common …

Uncategorised

British Council funds project to develop a comprehensive model of language in the brain

Exciting news came to the Brain, Language, and Behaviour Laboratory before Christmas 2025 in the form of a successful funding …

Uncategorised

And the winner is… When your work matters and gets noticed

When do you know that your work truly matters? Well, for us there have been a few key moments that …

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

It’s not only about doing research and improving care – our annual tradition of raising funds for Brain Tumour Support

Two years in a row now, the BLB Lab team rallied the troops to raise funds alongside our local Brain …

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

Open-Access Resource: The British Object and Action Naming Test for Intraoperative Mapping (BOATIM)

Fig. Example images from BOATIM. We are proud and excited to share our two key clinical resources – an Object …

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

Meet the BLB Lab members

Welcome to the Brain, Language and Behaviour Lab! In this post, we introduce our multidisciplinary team working together towards a …

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

Why we do what we do

At the Brain, Language and Behaviour (BLB) Lab, we are a group of researchers and clinicians united by one common …

Uncategorised

British Council funds project to develop a comprehensive model of language in the brain

Exciting news came to the Brain, Language, and Behaviour Laboratory before Christmas 2025 in the form of a successful funding …

Uncategorised

And the winner is… When your work matters and gets noticed

When do you know that your work truly matters? Well, for us there have been a few key moments that …

Brain Language and Behaviour Lab

It’s not only about doing research and improving care – our annual tradition of raising funds for Brain Tumour Support

Two years in a row now, the BLB Lab team rallied the troops to raise funds alongside our local Brain …

Why we do what we do

soniamariotti | 9 January 202620 January 2026

At the Brain, Language and Behaviour (BLB) Lab, we are a group of researchers and clinicians united by one common goal: improving the quality of life of brain tumour patients. Based at the University of the West of England, the BLB Lab was born out of Anna Piasecki and Neil Barua’s vision to create a team and space for interdisciplinary and evidence-based translational research.

Translational research focuses on turning scientific discoveries into practical applications that improve human health and wellbeing, aimed at real-world application in (for us) clinical settings. In the context of language and cognitive mapping in awake brain surgery, our team works towards the development of novel tasks and interventions, that clinicians can use to assess and preserve their patients’ language and communication skills.

The starting point: brain tumour treatment

In the UK only, 34 people are diagnosed daily with a primary brain cancer (Cancer Research UK). This number does not include diagnoses of secondary brain cancer or non-cancerous tumours, such as low-grade gliomas, which can adversely affect survivors’ quality of life.

There can be many devastating consequences of living with a brain tumour. For instance, some people may develop language and cognitive impairments, which can lead to difficulties participating in work or social and familial life. Feelings of exclusion and depression are also common among this patient group, as is a reduced life expectancy. These all can lead to an impoverished quality of life.

While treatment for brain tumours is increasingly more effective, the gold standard surgical technique for tumour removal is awake brain surgery (craniotomy, in medical terms), along with adjuvant therapies, such as radio- or chemotherapy.

**Fig. 1** Awake brain surgery setting in the operating room. The patient is woken from anaesthesia and performs language tests, such as naming the picture of the kangaroo, while the neurosurgeon stimulates the brain.

During an awake craniotomy (see Fig. 1), the patient is woken from sedation to complete several motor, cognitive and language tasks while the neurosurgeon stimulates the brain with direct electrical stimulation. This process guides the mapping of key brain areas for motor, cognitive and language skills, separating those areas from cancerous brain tissue to be cut out. In this way, the tumour can be removed as much as possible, while preserving brain areas that are fundamental to a person’s ability to speak, think, move, and interact with others.

A brief history of language testing in awake craniotomy

Awake language mapping has been performed for nearly a century (Fig. 2 below), starting as early as the late 1920s with Wilder Penfield pioneering cortical stimulation and evolving through the 1980s, when George Ojemann refined language mapping methods.

**Fig. 2** Timeline of developments in awake brain surgery throughout the last century.

In the last two decades, neuroimaging techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging, fMRI, and, diffusor tensor imaging, DTI) and technological advances (virtual and augmented reality) have offered more precise insights into brain structure and function. Similarly, the tasks used for language and cognitive mapping – starting historically with simply counting from 1 to 10 or reciting the months of the year – have also (thankfully!) evolved. How many of us count to ten on a daily basis; unless, of course, you’re an accountant? Nowadays, several language skills are being tested, for example naming pictures of objects and actions, completing sentences, producing sounds, and many more. But there is still a lot to do – and that’s how our work fits in!

Awake brain surgery worldwide and in the UK

You may be wondering, what brain tumour treatment is available where you live in the UK, or rather across the different NHS Trusts? Well, we had the same question and thought it would be important for our work to know the current status quo of language testing practices in this country, especially given the diverse range of practices across the world that have been reported in recent years. For this purpose, we launched a national survey to clinical practitioners working with brain tumour patients in the UK, asking about their approach to language testing, the challenges they face, and if there were any aspects of patient care that would need improvement (click on the picture below to read the paper).

Click the paper header to read the open access article, from Neuro-Oncology Practice.

The results highlighted that language testing practices in awake craniotomy vary across the country, with clinicians advocating for more updated and comprehensive tasks to test patients with diverse linguistic skills and languages, such as bilingual patients, sign language users, and people who communicate with impaired speech and language. Equally, clinicians in the UK were calling for a more joined up approach across the Trusts and practices, as well as quicker and better support for patients after their surgery. And these are exactly the things we have started and continue to address, as you can see across the different posts in our blog.

If you ever had an idea you wanted to pursue, make a comment about our work, or if you wanted to join our mission or research team, do get in touch (BLB.Lab@uwe.ac.uk)!

It’s not only about doing research and improving care – our annual tradition of raising funds for Brain Tumour Support

soniamariotti | 4 October 20257 November 2025

Two years in a row now, the BLB Lab team rallied the troops to raise funds alongside our local Brain Tumour Support charity – a cause very close to our hearts. The events, held at a local venue in Bristol, bring together individuals passionate about making a difference in the lives of those affected by brain cancer.

During the first fundraiser we learned about the deep-rooted connection between the Southmead Neuro Team and Brain Tumour Support. It was a very touching moment. Since the charity’s inception, the Southmead Neuro Team has been working hand in hand with Brain Tumour Support to ensure that no one faces the daunting journey of a brain tumour diagnosis alone.

In April 2023, the Southmead Neuro Team embarked on a groundbreaking six-month early intervention pilot program with Brain Tumour Support. This innovative initiative ensured that patients received vital support from the moment of diagnosis, leading to remarkable outcomes. Over 100 patients were referred to the charity, and there was a staggering 50% reduction in emotional support calls to the neuro team. This success has cemented the program as standard practice at the hospital, underscoring the importance of continued funding and support.

The first fundraiser set out a friendly team competition, featuring challenges such as biking, hanging from a bar, and crossfit exercises. This spirited competition not only fostered camaraderie among attendees but also served as a reminder of the collective effort needed to support those affected by brain tumours.

The bar was raised for the second fundraiser where, as a team, we set ourselves the challenge to bike, row and ski not one but three marathons in total! Despite our best efforts and high spirits, we were glad to be joined by regular cross-fitters after the first two hours of the challenge.

Both events emphasised to us the crucial link between physical wellbeing and overall health, including the importance of nutrition in maintaining a balanced lifestyle, so we can continue to support those who need it most.

Who knows what challenge will be set for 2026! Join us for it, if you can.

To learn more about Brain Tumour Support and how you can contribute to their vital work, visit their website.

When translational work meets academic circles: Our impressions from the world’s leading conference on bilingualism

soniamariotti | 20 June 20256 November 2025

Earlier this month, a few members of the BLB Lab flew to Spain for the International Symposium on Bilingualism (ISB15). Anna, Sonia and Lydia were honoured to join forces with Anna Gasa Roqué, their collaborator from the Bellvitge University Hospital in Barcelona, and present a four-part symposium entitled “The unexplored power of translational research: Applying insights from awake brain surgery to our current understanding of the bilingual mind”.

To give you some context, ISB15 is a biennal conference that has grown to be the most significant event in the field of bilingualism. This year it focused on multidisciplinary research output from a range of fields, including linguistics, neuroscience, and psychology, which lie at the core of the BLB Lab research. What’s more, the conference took place in beautiful Donostia-San Sebastián, at the heart of the Spanish Basque Country, where the bilingual heritage is alive across all aspects of society.

The symposium presenters: Anna Piasecki, Anna Gasa Roqué, Sonia Mariotti and Lydia Wiernik.

The BLB-organised symposium on translational research offered a deep dive into the fascinating world of intraoperative language testing and management of bilingual brain tumour patients. Designed to guide attendees through this complex field, the symposium began with Anna Piasecki providing a comprehensive introduction to the procedure and laying the groundwork with essential concepts and terminology. From there, the presentations gradually zoomed in, taking the audience on a journey that span from bilingualism’s role in shaping the brain to the challenges of preserving language skills of bilingual patients.

After the introduction, Anna Gasa-Roqué explored the effects of bilingualism in brain tumour patients, showing how being bilingual changes both the structure and functionality of the brain. Sonia Mariotti then focused on the important role of cognitive flexibility involved in switching between languages, and how this ability should be preserved in bilingual brain tumour patients. Finally, the symposium ended with Lydia Wiernik, who presented a compelling case study on bimodal bilingualism, showing that both spoken English and British Sign Language can be tested and preserved during awake surgery.

Each presentation built on the last, creating a layered and immersive experience that reflected the depth and diversity of research in this area. Feedback from the audience resonated with this aspect, and fellow academics expressed genuine enthusiasm for the symposium, describing it as both intellectually enriching and clinically vital. Many highlighted the lab’s work as not only fascinating but also deeply important – pushing the boundaries of what we understand about the bilingual brain.

Presenting at ISB15 was an incredible opportunity to share the BLB Lab research with the intenational academic community. We hope that our perspective on translational research inspires more interdisciplinary collaboration between linguists, neuroscientists, and clinicians to improve intraoperative care for everyone.

View of Donostia-San Sebastián from Monte Igueldo

Exploring the frontiers of awake brain surgery: Highlights from the 2025 Awake Craniotomy Symposium at UWE

annapiasecki | 23 May 20255 November 2025

Today, our Brain, Language and Behaviour (BLB) Lab played host to a landmark event in the field of brain tumour surgery: the 2025 Awake Craniotomy Symposium. Organised in collaboration with the North Bristol NHS Trust and the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, the symposium brought together a community of more than a hundred neurosurgeons, speech and language therapists, neuropsychologists, physiotherapists, anaesthetists, and researchers to explore the latest advancements and challenges in awake brain surgery. Scroll down to see the photo gallery from the event!

The day began with a warm welcome from organisers, and our BLB Lab’s co-leads, Anna Piasecki and Neil Barua, setting the tone for a programme rich in interdisciplinary insight and clinical innovation. The first session focused on preoperative planning, featuring talks on cutting-edge techniques such as Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) by Jose Pedro Lavrador, and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) by Puneet Plaha and Natalie Voets. Neil Barua also introduced the role of mixed reality in surgical planning, highlighting how immersive technologies can support surgical approaches with the whole multidisciplinary team’s involvement. All attendees were then invited to explore some of these technologies for themselves at the featured sponsor stands throughout the day, including wearing VR goggles, which created a high level of interest and excitement.

Session two shifted the spotlight to intraoperative test selection. Hajira Mumtaz presented the first outcome of her research at the BLB Lab: the world’s first standardised and clinically tested resource for English-language object and action naming testing, freely available to clinicians (gain access to our BOATIM material here). This was followed by a compelling trio of perspectives on cognitive and sensorimotor testing during surgery—from physiotherapy, neuropsychology, and neurosurgery—delivered by Charly Moran, Margaret Newson, and Francesco Vergani respectively. Their insights underscored each discipline’s contribution in preserving complex brain functions during the surgery.

Following the morning sessions, clinical teams from across the UK and international delegates presented some of their innovative practice over joint lunch-poster session conversations. The winning poster was collectively decided by the symposium delegates and was awarded to the clinical team from the North Midlands and North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust, sharing an evaluation of their originally designed Awake Craniotomy Video Leaflet for patients.

After lunch, the afternoon resumed with Sonia Mariotti and Clare Toner, who provided an overview of clinician and patient experience of awake brain surgery practices in the UK (see here and here for their respective work), setting the scene for two subsequent panel discussions. These two interactive sessions involved the attendees in a lively conversation with a multidisciplinary panel of experts, discussing the need for consensus on test selection and follow-up protocols. The conversations revealed both the diversity of current practices across the UK and a shared desire for more unified approaches to patient care and research.

The final session, “Directions for Networking and Collaboration,” featured a series of flash talks that showcased innovative projects and case studies. Highlights included Aimun Jamjoom’s introduction of Map-OR, a digital platform for intraoperative language testing, and Sonia Mariotti’s exploration of bilingual patient testing. Tom Williamson presented on the challenges of testing multiple linguistic modalities, while Will Singleton addressed the unique considerations of awake craniotomy in paediatric patients.

The symposium concluded with reflective feedback and closing remarks, followed by a well-earned dinner at PepeNero, where conversations continued informally among colleagues and new collaborators.

The 2025 Awake Craniotomy Symposium was more than a meeting of minds—it was a celebration of the collaborative spirit that drives progress in brain surgery and cognitive science. By bridging clinical practice with research and technology, the event highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue in improving patient care and advancing our understanding of the brain. And the overwhelmingly positive feedback from delegates reaffirmed just that – followed by requests for further iterations of our symposium that helps bringing this key community together. So, watch this space!

Photo Gallery

Anna Piasecki and Neil Barua kick off the Symposium

Bridging disciplines: BLB Lab PhD students shine at UWE’s School of Arts research showcase

Anna Jones | 24 January 20245 November 2025

On the 24th of January 2024, the Brain, Language, and Behaviour (BLB) Lab at UWE Bristol took a significant step in sharing its interdisciplinary research by participating in the School of Arts Research Showcase. This event, held at Bristol’s harbourside MShed, hosted a convergence of diverse talents and expertise, providing a platform for the BLB Lab to present their ground-breaking work alongside other researchers and postgraduate students from UWE’s School of Arts.

In a setting that celebrated the fusion of art, science, and innovation, the BLB Lab PhD students, Hajira Mumtaz, Tom Williamson, and Sonia Mariotti, captivated the audience with their insights into the intersection of neurosurgery, linguistics, psychology, and clinical care. Their presentations shed light on the collaborative efforts aimed at understanding the complexities of brain function and behaviour, while also emphasising the practical applications of the lab’s research in clinical settings.

The BLB Lab showcase commenced with the trailer of ‘My Beautiful Broken Brain’, a documentary film about the life of 34-year-old Lotje Sodderland after she suffered a haemorrhagic stroke. As a result of her stroke, Lotje experienced aphasia, the complete loss of her ability to read, write, or speak coherently. The documentary shows the challenges of communicating with language impairments, followed by intensive rehabilitation on the journey to recovery, allowing the audience at MShed to empathise with survivors of acquired brain injury.

Additionally, the showcase provided a unique opportunity for attendees to delve into the cutting-edge research in neurosurgical language testing. The PhD students were able to show how language testing is conducted with awake patients in the operating theatre, and attendees could even try firsthand some of the language tasks that are administered during the surgery. The opportunity to experience the BLB Lab research activity offered a glimpse into the intricate fields of psycholinguistics and neurolinguistics, pushing research efforts at the intersection of academia and clinical practice.

The Research Showcase also provided a platform for collaboration and exchange, fostering dialogue between researchers from diverse disciplines. The BLB Lab team engaged with colleagues from the School of Arts, exploring potential synergies and interdisciplinary initiatives that could further enrich their research endeavours. For instance, multidisciplinarity is a key component of the BLB Lab, whose members’ background spans from neurosurgery, speech and language therapy, to psychology, linguistics, and art.

The BLB Lab members are looking forward to the next event where they will present the their work in progress – stay tuned!

Our study day exploring Virtual Reality for the OR

Anna Jones | 16 January 20249 July 2025

On 16th November 2023, our Brain, Language, and Behaviour (BLB) lab team held a cross-disciplinary study day at our collaborating NHS site at Southmead Hospital. A meeting of minds covering neurosurgery, speech and language therapy (SLT), palliative care, as well as linguistics and psychology, our group spent the morning digging deeper into the background to our wide-ranging projects, their common aims, and progress.

The day started with Neil Barua, Lead Consultant Neurosurgeon at Southmead, explaining how brain tumour patients’ best interests are prioritised throughout the entire process of awake brain surgery. Madeline Farrow, an SLT at Southmead, then presented her current practices for testing language functions before, during, and after surgeries with patients; identifying critical areas where the BLB team can make a real difference to patient outcomes and their quality of life. This led to individual presentations on research progress by the BLB lab’s three PhD students: Hajira Mumtaz, Sonia Mariotti, and Tom Williamson. We ended with Anna Piasecki’s vision for the BLB lab as its lead, who also holds posts as Associate Professor of Psycholinguistics and Director of Research and Enterprise at UWE, charting a course for future world-leading innovation at the intersection of interdisciplinary academic expertise and clinical practice.

A woman testing a virtual reality headset — One of the team members testing the headsets

To round off the day, several team members donned the virtual reality headsets that clinical teams use to visualise the exact size and location of a patient’s tumour prior to the surgery and to prepare their surgical removal approach! This technology relies on diffusion tensor imaging, which maps brain connections and shows the neurosurgeons exactly where a brain tumour is. It was truly enlightening for BLB team members to see images up-close of brain tissue that our research aims to better understand and preserve.