Oscar Woolnough

@owoolnough.bsky.social

1633 Followers 531 Following

Assistant Professor @ UTHealth Neurosurgery || Human intracranial studies of literacy, learning, and language 🏳️‍🌈🇬🇧 owoolnough.github.io

Map of stimulation sites resulting in pulvinar anomia
Connectivity maps of cortico-pulvinar interactions
Spectrograms of pulvinar activity during naming and non-naming language tasks
Diagrams of electrodes placed in the thalami of eight patients
Journal of Vision Special Issue The vision-language interface Call for papers Vision and language are often considered to be separate cognitive systems, studied by separate research teams. However, they interact when we use vision for linguistic communication: when reading printed text, when describing verbally the things we see, and when observing the expressions and gestures of an interlocutor (during sign language, for example). The development of these critical skills changes the brain, such that the visual and language systems influence one another. In particular, regions of the cerebral cortex that are typically responsive to visual stimuli are also recruited for linguistic tasks. But some of those ideas are controversial. For instance, for well over a century scientists have debated whether the brains of literate individuals contain a region that is specialized for recognizing written words. The Journal of Vision invites submissions for a Special Issue on the interface between vision and language. The unique perspectives and techniques of vision science contribute much to the understanding of language. This special issue welcomes empirical papers that use behavioral/psychophysical, neuroimaging, electrophysiological and stimulation methods. Topics include, but are not limited to: - Functional specialization in the brain for reading and naming - Semantic representations in the brain - Letter recognition and perceptual learning - Sign language comprehension - Eye movements during reading or other linguistic tasks - Development of visual skills for reading and communication - Links between visual cortical activity and representations in large language models - Visual processing differences in dyslexia Editors: Susana Chung Kalanit Grill-Spector Garikoitz Lerma-Usabiaga Hans Op de Beeck Zeynep Saygin Alex White Oscar Woolnough Deadline for submissions: December 31, 2025. All papers will be subject to peer review.
The influence of language in higher-level visual cortex Symposium: Friday, May 16, 2025, 8:00 – 10:00 am, Talk Room 1 Presenters: Alex L White, Alexia Dalski, Marisa Nordt, Marina Bedny, Oscar Woolnough, Emily X Meschke
Map of ventral temporal cortex showing a cluster sensitive to nonsense word memorability in anterior fusiform cortex
Word cloud organised by nonsense word memorability
Pairs of nonsense words with high or low memorability for each word length. For example 'fonned' was remembered by 11% of people while 'jubjub' was remembered by 71%
Schematic of the memorability experiment with multiple nonsense words presented after each other, including rommytot, lixivate, woozle, and zozimus
A diagram of the ventral surface of the brain, demonstrating distinct regions relating to reading or naming function.
Aerial photo of the Texas Medical Center