Katharina Menn

Dr. Katharina Menn serves as Assistant Professor in the Department of Cognitive Neuropsychology within Tilburg University's Tilburg School of Social and Behavioral Sciences. Her research bridges developmental psychology and neuroscience through innovative electrophysiological methodologies.

Her primary research focuses on the neurobiological foundations of infant language acquisition, specifically examining how the maturation of brain activity constrains phonological development. Key areas include:

• Electrophysiological maturation and its impact on language processing capabilities
• Temporal dynamics of phoneme acquisition in native language development
• EEG deconvolution modeling techniques applied to naturalistic speech processing
• Developmental trajectories from slow to fast neural processing in infancy

Dr. Menn's recent publications demonstrate significant impact, with her 2023 Science Advances paper receiving 12 citation indexes and 33 Mendeley readers, while her Perspectives on Psychological Science article garnered 8 citations and 27 readers with additional news coverage. Her work reveals that infants acquire phoneme features in order of temporal duration, starting with longer features matching their initial slow neural processing capabilities.

Her notable recognitions include:

• Dissertation Award from International Society for Infant Studies (2024)
• Dissertation Award from Society for Neurobiology of Language (2024)

Dr. Menn's research program investigates how neuronal development serves as a critical driving force in language acquisition, with implications for understanding developmental disorders and optimizing early language interventions. Her laboratory specializes in advanced EEG methodologies for studying infant cognition, focusing on the interplay between neural maturation and linguistic development during the first five years of life.