I am a cognitive psychologist, psycholinguist and trainee speech and language therapist.
 
                                                                                     Me                                  My brain                            

"Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms" 
Penelope Lively

Take a moment to think about what happens when you want to say something, or when someone speaks and you understand them.  Compare this with trying to speak or understand languages you don't know.

It should become clear quite quickly that the mind/brain 'does' language unconsciously (for the most part) and all we have access to is the end product, i.e. our inner or outer voice that produces the words and our immediate understanding when someone talks.

I am fascinated by language, and how we can support people who have acquired language and communication problems as a result of stroke, brain injury or a degenerative neurological condition.

For details on my interests, please see the academic and publications pages.

For some examples of what it's like when language is impaired after a stroke (disrupted blood supply to part of the brain), see these videos on youtube: 

Fluent aphasia (also described as Wernicke's aphasia)
Non-Fluent aphasia (also described as Broca's aphasia, agrammatism)