Dr. Christian Brodbeck is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computing and Software. His research aims to understand and measure how the brain processes speech. He is particularly interested in how people comprehend speech in realistic settings, including continuous, meaningful speech, and speech in noisy backgrounds.
Dr. Brodbeck primarily works with electrophysiological brain signals (MEG & EEG) and computational models. M/EEG allows us to measure brain activity with millisecond resolution, capturing brain responses to rapidly evolving speech signals. Computational models of speech recognition allow us to better understand the transformations necessary for recognizing speech, and they also allow us to make quantitative predictions for brain activity.
This work lays the foundations for better understanding how speech perception is affected in different settings and populations. For example, how does speech processing change with age? How is it affected by a hearing impairment? And how can this guide us to better address challenges faced by these populations.
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Assistant professor, Department of Computing and Software, Faculty of Engineering, McMaster University
Gaston, P., Brodbeck, C., Phillips, C. & Lau, E. (2023). Auditory word com- prehension is less incremental in isolated words. Neurobiology of Language 4(1).
Xie, Z., Brodbeck, C., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2023). Cortical tracking of continuous speech under bimodal divided attention. Neurobiology of Language 4(2). doi:
Brodbeck, C., Das, P., Gillis, M., Kulasingham, J.P., Bhattasali, S., Gaston, P., Resnik, P. & Simon, J.Z. (2023). Eelbrain, a Python toolkit for time- continuous analysis with temporal response functions. eLife 12.
Brodbeck, C., Kandylaki, K.D. & Scharenborg, O. (2023). Neural representations of non-native speech reflect proficiency and interference from native language knowledge. Journal of Neuroscience 44(1).
Herrera, C., Whittle, N., Leek, M.R., Brodbeck, C., Lee, G., Barcenas, C., Barnes, S., Holshouser, B., Yi, A., & Venezia, J.H. (2023). Cortical networks for recognition of speech with simultaneous talkers. Hearing Research 437.
Bieber, R., Brodbeck, C. & Anderson, S. (2022). Examining the context benefit in older adults: a combined behavioral-electrophysiologic word identification study. Neuropsychologia 170(6).
Brodbeck, C., Bhattasali, S., Heredia, A.C., Resnik, P., Simon, J.Z. & Lau, E. (2022). Parallel processing in speech perception with local and global representations of linguistic context. eLife 11.
Brodbeck, C. & Simon, J.Z. (2022). Cortical tracking of voice pitch in the presence of multiple speakers depends on selective attention. Frontiers in Neuroscience 16.
Kulasingham, J.P., Brodbeck, C., Khan, S., Marsh, E.B. & Simon, J.Z. (2022). Bilaterally Reduced Rolandic Beta Band Activity in Minor Stroke Patients. Frontiers in Neurology.
Gillis, M., Vanthornhout, J., Simon, J.Z., Francart, T. & Brodbeck, C. (2021). Neural markers of speech comprehension: measuring EEG tracking of linguistic speech representations, controlling the speech acoustics. Journal of Neuroscience 41(50).
Luthra, S., Li, M.Y.C, You, H., Brodbeck, C., & Magnuson, J.S. (2021). Does signal reduction imply predictive coding in models of spoken word recognition? Psychonomic Bulletin & Review. x.