Post-Docs
Manda Fischer, Postdoctoral fellow
I am a cognitive neuroscientist (and musician) fascinated by the dynamic interplay between memory and perception in moulding our experience of the world. As a BrainsCAN Postdoctoral Fellow at Western University working with Dr. Ingrid Johnsrude, my research centres on understanding how long-term memory for voices can enhance speech intelligibility under challenging listening conditions. This work forms part of my broader scope, combining perspectives from memory research, auditory neuroscience, and music perception. I mainly use converging behavioural, neural (EEG), and statistical modelling techniques to understand how memory guides attention to facilitate successful auditory perception.
My research journey began with two honours theses exploring how acoustic factors and musical expertise influence sound segregation in orchestral music, working with Dr. Stephen McAdams (B.Sc., McGill University). After having been “bitten” by the research bug, I expanded my focus to investigate the cognitive and neural processes that support auditory memory formation and retrieval in order to uncover how cognitive factors like memory and attention shape auditory perception in real-world soundscapes, working with Drs. Claude Alain and Morris Moscovitch (M.A. and Ph.D., University of Toronto).
Anna Tinnemore, Postdoctoral fellow
I am interested in speech perception, cognition, and how the brain adapts to changes in what we hear (noisy or degraded speech) and how we hear (hearing loss, cognitive decline) to maximize communication success. During this postdoctoral experience, I am expanding my investigative toolkit to include neural measures, like EEG, combined with behavioural measures and statistical modelling. There are many research questions I am excited to explore, including how the brain represents or encodes unattended degraded speech.
My academic journey has been long and winding! I am grateful that I received the opportunity to work with Ingrid Johnsrude and her lab members starting in January 2025. My PhD research investigated the use of context cues as a function of age, target word location within a sentence, and background noise level in listeners with normal hearing and listeners who use a cochlear implant. I received a PhD in Neuroscience and Cognitive Science from the University of Maryland in 2024 working under Dr. Sandra Gordon-Salant and Dr. Matthew Goupell. I also have a clinical doctorate in Audiology (University of Arizona, 2017) and a Masters in Computational Linguistics (University of Washington, 2007).
