Sophie Scott, guest at the PNC Distinguished Lectures
30.09.2025
As part of the seminars organized by the “Padua Neuroscience Center – PNC”, Sophie Scott, on October 9, 2025, at 3:00 pm at the Sala Seminari of the Fondazione Ricerca Biomedica Avanzata VIMM (Via Orus 2 – Padova, Building A, Ground Floor) will give a talk entitled “The neurobiology of auditory processing. From sound to social meaning”.
In this talk it will be outlined a model of auditory processing which integrates neurophysiological and neuroanatomical data from nonhuman primate research, with functional imaging and behavioural data from human studies. It will be argued that human auditory processing comprises at least two distinct kinds of perceptual processing streams, one associated with recognition processes, and one linking sounds to actions. These into wider linguistic and semantic networks will be linked, and it will be considered how these networks are shaped by expertise and social factors.
Sophie Scott is a neuroscientist and a Wellcome Trust Senior Fellow at University College London (UCL). She also serves as Head of the Speech Communication Group at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience (UCL).
Her research originates in the neurobiology of speech and sound processing, an area in which she has made funda-mental contributions to our understanding of how models of auditory processing from non-human primate neurophysiology and neuroanatomy can be used to guide our understanding of the human speech processing. She also established the first systematic approach to the neurobiology of non-verbal emotional expressions. More recently, she has emphasised the importance of studying the human voice in a social context.
The seminar is held in English, and it is open to professors, researchers, lecturers, Ph.D. students, postdoctoral fellows and grant holders.
Attendance is free as long as seats are available.
Further information: administration.pnc@unipd.it
