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School of Psychological Sciences

Professor Matthew Lambon Ralph FRSLT (hons)

Photograph of Matthew Lambon Ralph

Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience

For more details on my research and the Neuroscience and Aphasia Research Unit, visit:

www.manchester.ac.uk/psych-sci/naru

 

 

Research

Our research makes use of four key methodologies: neuropsychology, computational models (models that can mimic neural organisation in their construction but also produce target behaviours), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), structural and functional neuroimaging. The various research projects can be summarised under three themes:

(1) Semantic memory : various interlinked projects explore the nature and neural underpinnings of semantic memory or conceptual knowledge, including category-specific disorders. This uses data from semantic dementia, herpes simplex virus encephalitis (HSVE), aphasia after CVA and temporal lobe resection for epilepsy for the neuropsychological investigations and is complemented by TMS, fMRI and MR tractography studies.

(2) Language : there are several ongoing projects exploring different aspects of language production and comprehension, and their neural bases. For neuropsychology, these include a direct comparison of fluent and non-fluent varieties of progressive and non-progressive aphasia; acquired dyslexias and dysgraphias; verb morphology deficits; and verbal short-term memory deficits. We also conduct parallel studies in neurological intact studies utilising experimental psycholingistics, TMS, computational modelling and fMRI studies.

(3) Recovery, rehabilitation and neuroplasticity : As well as concentrating on the nature of chronic and progressive cognitive and language deficits, the third theme is devoted to the study of the neural and cognitive principles that guide recovery and rehabilitation. This includes active rehabilitation programmes, longitudinal neuropsychological assessment of recovery, computational models of neuroplasticity and parallel functional imaging studies of patients.

 

Biography

I obtained my PhD from York University and then worked at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit (Cambridge). I moved from there to the University of Bristol, Department of Experimental Psychology, as a Lecturer. I came to Manchester in 2001 as Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience within the School of Psychological Sciences. I am also the Director of the University's Neuroscience Research Institute (NRI). I am an Action Editor for Cognitive Neuropsychology, and Neuropsychological Rehabilitation and on the editorial board for Memory, International Journal of Language & Communication Disorders, Psychologia, Neurocase, and the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry. I was an executive committee member for The British Neuropsychological Society (2001-4) and was the vice-chair for the British Aphasiology Society (2000-2005). I was awarded an honorary Fellowship of the Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists in 2003. I was awarded the Distinguished Achievement Award (Researcher of the Year) by the University in 2008. I am also a Senior Investigator for the NIHR.

 

Collaborators and affiliated staff

Collaborators

External

  • Dr. Beth Jefferies
    University of York
  • Prof. Manabu Ikeda
    Kumamoto University Hospital
  • Prof. Jay McClelland
    Stanford University
  • Prof. Karalyn Patterson
    MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge
  • Dr. Tim Rogers
    University of Madison-Wisconsin
  • Dr. Satoru Saito
    Kyoto University

Internal

 

 

Selected publications

2009

2008

  • Lambon Ralph MA, Patterson K (2008). Generalization and Differentiation in Semantic Memory: Insights from Semantic Dementia. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci, 1124, 61-76. further details

2007

  • Lambon Ralph MA, Lowe C, Rogers T. (2007). Neural basis of category-specific semantic deficits for living things: evidence from semantic dementia, HSVE and a neural network model. Brain, 130( Pt 4), 1127-37. further details
  • Pobric GG, Jefferies E, Lambon Ralph MA. (2007). Anterior temporal lobes mediate semantic representation: Mimicking semantic dementia by using rTMS in normal participants. PNAS, 104, 20137-20141. Full text doi:10.1073pnas.0707383104 further details
  • Welbourne SR, Lambon Ralph MA. (2007). Using PDP Models to Simulate Phonological Dyslexia: The Key Role of Plasticity-Related Recovery. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19 No 7, 1125-1139. further details
  • Woollams AM, Lambon Ralph MA, D.C. Plaut, K. Patterson. (2007). SD-squared: on the association between semantic dementia and surface dyslexia. Psychological Review, 114 no2, 316 - 339. Full text doi:10.1037/0033-295X.114.2.316 further details

2006

  • Crisp J, Lambon Ralph MA. (2006). Unlocking the nature of the phonological-deep dyslexial continuum: the keys to reading aloud are in phonology and semantics. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 348-362. Full text doi:10.1162/jocn.2006.18.3.348 further details
  • Jefferies E, Lambon Ralph MA. (2006). Semantic impairment in stroke aphasia versus semantic dementia: a case-series comparison. Brain, 129( Pt 8), 2132-47. further details
  • Lambon Ralph MA, Ehsan S. (2006). Age of acquisition effects depend on the mapping between representations and the frequency of occurrence: Empirical and computational evidence. Visual Cognition, 13, 928-948. further details
  • Patterson K, Lambon Ralph MA, Jefferies E, Woollams AM, Jones R, Hodges J. R, Rogers T. T. (2006). 'Pre-semantic' cognition in semantic dementia: Six deficits in search of an explanation. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 18, 169-183. further details

2005

  • Lambon Ralph MA, Braber N, J.L. McClelland, K. Patterson. (2005). What underlies the neuropsychological pattern of irregular > regular past-tense verb production? Brain & Language, 93, 106-119. further details
  • Parker GJM, S. Luzzi, D.C. Alexander, C.A.M. Wheeler-Kingshott, O. Ciccarelli, Lambon Ralph MA. (2005). Lateralization of ventral and dorsal auditory-language pathways in the human brain. Neuroimage, 24, 656-666. Full text doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2004.08.047 further details

2004

2003

  • Bird H, Seidenberg MS, Lambon Ralph MA, McClelland J.L, Patterson K. (2003). Deficits in phonology and past tense morphology. Journal of Memory and Language, 48, 502-526. further details

2001

  • Lambon Ralph MA, McClelland J, Patterson K, Galton C, Hodges J. (2001). No right to speak? The relationship between object naming and semantic impairment: neuropsychological evidence and a computational model. J Cogn Neurosci, 13( 3), 341-56. Full text doi:10.1162/08989290151137395 further details
  • Patterson K, Lambon Ralph MA, Hodges J, McClelland J. (2001). Deficits in irregular past-tense verb morphology associated with degraded semantic knowledge. Neuropsychologia, 39( 7), 709-24. further details

2000

  • Bozeat S, Lambon Ralph MA, Patterson K, Garrard P, Hodges J. (2000). Non-verbal semantic impairment in semantic dementia. Neuropsychologia, 38( 9), 1207-15. further details
  • Ellis A, Lambon Ralph MA. (2000). Age of acquisition effects in adult lexical processing reflect loss of plasticity in maturing systems: insights from connectionist networks. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn, 26( 5), 1103-23. further details

1999

  • Patterson K, Lambon Ralph MA. (1999). Selective disorders of reading? Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 9, 2, further details

1998

  • Lambon Ralph MA, Howard D, Nightingale G, Ellis A. W. (1998). Are living and non-living category-specific deficits casually linked to impaired perceptual or associative knowledge? Evidence from a category-specific double dissociation. Neurocase, 4, 4-5, 311-338. further details

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