Dr Suhail Matar

My main area of interest is language processing. Language typically presents itself to us as a linear stream (of text, of sounds, of signs), which we are able to convert into complex mental objects. One analogy I like to use is weaving, such as in tatreez—the traditional art of Palestinian embroidery, called tatreez. To weave a beautiful piece of tatreez, we start with spools of linear thread, which our hands weave into stitches (low-level structures), motifs (medium-level structures), and a tapestry (high-level structures). These structures are not woven sequentially: we do not weave a collection of stitches, only to then shape them into a motif. Rather, we weave the tapestry, the motif, and the stitch simultaneously.

An example of Palestinian tatreez. Notice the overall tapestry, the various motifs, and zoom in to see the stitches. Around the center, a line from a poem by celebrated Palestinian poet Mahmoud Darwish: “Dearly I yearn for my mother’s bread, and my mother’s coffee, and my mother’s touch.“

I like to think of language comprehension in a similar way: our brains and minds weave the language stream into word-level structures, sentence-level structures, and discourse-level structures. In my work, I ask how our brains and minds achieve this remarkable feat. Want to know more? Find out here.

My work uses a two-pronged approached to investigate language processing: (i) complementary methods of recording neural activity, including electrophysiological recordings using electro- and magnetoencephalography (EEG and MEG, respectively), neuroimaging (fMRI), and behavioral studies, and (ii) experimental designs that capitalize on grammatical properties of understudied languages (such as Arabic).