Mairead MacSweeney

Professor Mairead MacSweeney is a leading cognitive neuroscientist at University College London's Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, where she serves as Deputy Director. She was previously the Director of the UCL Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (DCAL) from 2017-2023 and currently holds a prestigious Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship (2022-2028). Her work bridges the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience with the DCAL research center, contributing significantly to UCL's reputation in neuroscience and deaf studies.

Her educational background includes a Doctor of Philosophy from University College London (1998) and a Bachelor of Science from the University of Northumbria at Newcastle (1993). Her academic career trajectory shows progressive responsibility, starting as a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at UCL in 1998, then advancing through various Wellcome-funded fellowships before reaching her current professorship.

MacSweeney's research fundamentally explores how the brain processes language in people born profoundly deaf, examining how altered sensory experiences shape neural organization. Her work demonstrates that 'auditory' brain regions can process visual input when hearing is absent from birth, and that signed and spoken languages engage similar neural networks. This research has significant theoretical implications for understanding brain plasticity and practical applications for deaf education. Her methodology combines functional MRI (fMRI), behavioral analysis, and electroencephalography (EEG) to investigate language, literacy, and cognitive processing in deaf populations.

Her recent publications reveal a consistent focus on language processing in deaf individuals, with increasing attention to developmental trajectories from infancy through adulthood. The research shows interdisciplinary connections between cognitive neuroscience, linguistics, developmental psychology, and education, with particular emphasis on bimodal bilingualism (spoken language plus sign language), cross-modal plasticity, and the neural basis of reading in deaf populations. Her work increasingly incorporates longitudinal designs and comparative approaches between deaf and hearing populations.

• Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow (2022-2028)

Professor MacSweeney actively supervises undergraduate and MSc research projects and teaches across multiple Masters-level courses in the Faculty of Brain Sciences and Faculty of Population Health Sciences. Her research program is substantially supported by Wellcome Trust funding, indicating major institutional investment in her work on sensory and language experience effects on neural systems. She has secured continuous research funding through multiple competitive Wellcome fellowships since 2001, demonstrating sustained research excellence.

MacSweeney leads research within the Visual Communication research group at the UCL Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience and has been central to DCAL's research activities. Her work connects with broader initiatives studying British Sign Language and deaf cognition, contributing to DCAL's mission of conducting world-class research to empower deaf people. She collaborates with researchers across UCL departments including Linguistics, Experimental Psychology, and Language and Cognition, reflecting the interdisciplinary nature of her work.