Bencie Woll is a Professor of the School of Linguistic Sciences and Arts of the Jiangsu Normal University and the Principal Investigator and Chief Scientist for the Platform for Linguistic and Social Research on Atypical Language Users of the Collaborative Innovation Center for Language Ability of the Jiangsu Normal University. She was elected as a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (2016) and the British Academy (2012). She has held the Chair of Sign Language and Deaf Studies at University College London since 2005 and was the director of the Deafness, Cognition and Language Research Centre (2006-2016) and the vice-dean for Research, Division of Psychology and Language Sciences (2008-2011) at University College London. Before taking up her post at UCL she was at City University London and the University of Bristol.
Professor Bencie Woll’s research interests mainly focus on the neural mechanisms of language and cognition in deaf populations, including the linguistics of sign language, sign language and gesture and their neural underpinnings, sign language acquisition, and atypical sign language, as seen in acquired neurological disorders, such as aphasia. She has published almost 200 papers in a large number of journals, including Behavioral and Brain Sciences (IF=20.4), Trends in Cognitive Sciences (IF=17.9), Nature Communications (IF=11.3), The Lancet (IF=44), Brain, (IF=10.1), Neurology (IF=8.2), Neuroimage (IF=5.5), Human Brain Mapping (IF=4.9), Neuroscience Behavioral Review (IF=8.6), Brain and Language, Lingua and other top journals in different academic areas. She has authored and edited several books published by CambridgeUniversityPress, Mouton de Gruyter and other famous presses in the world. The Linguistics of BSL: an Introduction, which she co-authored, won the Deaf Nation Award in 1999 and the British Association of Applied Linguistics Book Prize in 2000. Professor Bencie Woll is the reviewer for many well-known journals, such as Brain, Cortex, Cognition, Nature Communications, Neuroimage, Language and Cognition, Biological Psychology. She has also served as a reviewer for international and national funding programmes, including the European Science Foundation, Wellcome Trust, National Science Foundation (USA), etc.
Research Interests
Neural Mechanisms of Language and Cognition in deaf populations
Selected Publications (since 2012)
1.Cardin V; Rudner M; De Oliveira RF; Andin J; T Su M; Beese L; Woll B; Rönnberg J (2017) The Organization of Working Memory Networks is Shaped by Early Sensory Experience. External link, Cerebral cortex, 1-15, DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhx222
2.Campbell R; Woll B (2017) Sign, language, and gesture in the brain: Some comments . BEHAVIORAL AND BRAIN SCIENCES, 40, DOI: 10.1017/S0140525X15002848
3.Denmark T; Marshall J; Mummery C; Roy P; Woll B; Atkinson J (2016) Detecting Memory Impairment in Deaf People: A New Test of Verbal Learning and Memory in British Sign Language. Archives of clinical neuropsychology : the official journal of the National Academy of Neuropsychologists, DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acw032
4.Atkinson J; Lyons T; Eagleman D; Woll B; Ward J (2016) Synesthesia for manual alphabet letters and numeral signs in second-language users of signed languages. Neurocase, 1-8, DOI: 10.1080/13554794.2016.1198489
5.Woll B (2016) Sociolinguistics of Deaf Communities. JOURNAL OF SOCIOLINGUISTICS, 20 (2), 245-249, DOI: 10.1111/josl.12179
6.Cardin V, Orfanidou E, Kästner L, Rönnberg J, Woll B, Capek CM, & Rudner M. (2016). Monitoring different phonological parameters of sign language engages the same cortical language network but distinctive perceptual ones. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 28(1): 20-40.
7.Cardin V, Smittenaar CR, Orfanidou E, Rönnberg J, Capek CM, Rudner M & Woll B (2015).Differential activity in Heschl’s gyrus between deaf and hearing individuals is due to auditory deprivation, rather than language modality. NeuroImage. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.08.073
8.Haug T, Herman RC, & Woll B (2015). Constructing an Online Test Framework, Using the Example of a Sign Language Receptive Skills Test. Deafness and Education International. 17(1): 3-7. http://dx.doi.org/10.1179/1557069X14Y.0000000035
9.Johnston T, Cresdee D, Schembri A, & Woll B (2015). finish variation and grammaticalization in a signed language: how far down this well-trodden pathway is Auslan (Australian Sign Language)? Language Variation and Change 27: 117-155. doi:10.1017/S0954394514000209
10.Payne H, Gutierrez-Sigut E, Subik J, Woll B, MacSweeney M (2015). Stimulus rate increases lateralisation in linguistic and non-linguistic tasks measured by functional Transcranial Doppler Sonography. Neuropsychologia72:59–69. doi: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2015.04.019.
11.Twomey T, Waters D, Price CJ, Kherif F, Woll B & MacSweeney M. (2015) Identification of the regions involved in phonological assembly using a novel paradigm. Brain and Language. Available on-line http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0093934X15001716
12.Woll B & Macsweeney M (2015). Let’s not forget the role of deafness in sign/speech bilingualism. Commentary on K. Emmorey, M Giezen & T Gollan. Insights from Bimodal bilingualism: Psycholinguistic, cognitive and neural implications of bimodal bilingualism. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S1366728915000371.
13. Campbell R, MacSweeney M, & Woll B (2014). Cochlear Implantation (CI) for prelingual deafness: brain organization and the role of first language acquisition. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience.doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00834
14. Marshall C, MasonK, Rowley K, Herman R, Atkinson J, Woll B & Morgan G (2014) Sentence repetition in deaf children with Specific Language Impairment in British Sign Language. Language Learning and Development. http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15475441.2014.917557.
15. Woll B (2014) Moving from hand to mouth: Echo phonology and the origins of language. Frontiers in Psychology Language Sciences. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00662
16. Stamp R, Schembri A, Fenlon J, Rentelis R, Woll B, & Cormier K. (2014) Lexical Variation and Change in British Sign Language. PLOS ONE 9(4) e94053. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094053
17. Andin J, Orfanidou E, Cardin V, Holmer E, Capek CM, Woll B, Rönnberg J, Rudner M. (2013). Similar digit-based working memory in deaf signers and hearing non-signers despite digit-span differences. Frontiers in Cognition 4: Article 942. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00942
18. Cormier K, Schembri A, & Woll B (2013) Pronouns and pointing in sign languages. Lingua 137 230-247. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.lingua.2013.09.010
19. Lyness R, Woll B, Cardin C & Campbell R (2013). How does visual language affect crossmodal plasticity and cochlear implant success? Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews 37(10): 2621-2630. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2013.08.011
20. Cardin V, Orfanidou E, Rönnberg J, Capek C, Rudner M, Woll B (2013) Dissociating cognitive and sensory neural plasticity in human superior temporal cortex. Nature Communications 4, Article number: 1473. doi:10.1038/ncomms2463
21. Atkinson J & Woll B (2012) The health of deaf people.The Lancet 379(9833): 2239
22. Matthews RA, Woll B, Clarke M (2012) Researching the acceptability of using Skype to provide Speech and Language Therapy. International Journal of Integrated Care 12:Special Issue, 1.
23. Pardo-Guijarro MJ, Woll B, Moya-Martínez P, Martínez-Andrés M, Cortés-Ramírez EE, Martínez-Vizcaíno V (2012) Validity and reliability of the Spanish sign language version of the KIDSCREEN-27 health-related quality of life questionnaire for use in deaf children and adolescents. Gaceta Sanitaria http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.gaceta.2012.11.003
24. Thompson RL, Vinson DP, Woll B, Vigliocco G (2012)The road to language learning is iconic: evidence from British Sign Language, Psychological Science 23: 1443-1448.
25. Woll B (2012) Speechreading revisited. Deafness and Education International 14(1): 16–21.