Monika Połczyńska

Monika Połczyńska, Ph.D., D.Litt., is a Researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioural Sciences within the David Geffen School of Medicine, and an Assistant Professor at Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Department of English. Her research integrates linguistics, neuroscience, and clinical neurology to investigate language processing in neurological conditions.

Her research interests focus on language networks in bilingual individuals, particularly examining how neurological conditions like epilepsy and brain tumors affect language lateralization and processing. She specializes in using functional MRI for pre-surgical language mapping, with significant contributions to understanding neuroplasticity in language networks. Her work bridges theoretical linguistics with clinical applications, particularly in neurosurgical planning and postoperative rehabilitation.

Analysis of her most recent publications reveals a strong focus on clinical applications of fMRI for language mapping, with particular attention to bilingual patients, tumor lateralization effects, and standardization of clinical protocols. Her research demonstrates how language networks adapt to neurological insults and how these adaptations can inform surgical planning to preserve language function.

Dr. Połczyńska has led and participated in several significant collaborative projects, including the European Aftercare Survey examining postoperative practices for brain tumor patients. Her work has established important guidelines for clinical fMRI applications in neurosurgical contexts.