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May 2022 Newsletter | Issue #2

By Paulina Dzialoszynski, Sabrina D. Ford and María F. Alonso

Next SpeechBank Site Discourse Meeting – June 23rd, 2022

Sites contributing to data collection will be discussing progress made to date. If you are interested in joining this meeting, please contact Dr. Maria Alonso for the Zoom information and time.

Seminar Series 2022

We are continuing with the second edition of our seminar series from May to November 2022. This year, the talks are organized by Drs. Natalia Mota and Eric Tan. Here are some of the upcoming talks:

• 9:00-11:00am ET June 3rd, 2022 -“Developmental Perspectives”, Valentina Bambini and Natalia Mota

• 9:00-11:00am ET June 24th, 2022 – “Automated Linguistics”, Alban Voppel and Eric Tan

Meetings will take place over Zoom at the following link: https://mcgill.zoom.us/j/84096990242

Discourse Protocol

This protocol is intended for producing speech samples to be compiled into a multilingual, benchmark dataset for the purpose of studying language in psychosis. We currently have English, Spanish, German, French, Croatian and Portuguese versions of the task administration protocol.

We have now added protocol versions in Turkish and Hindi.

Please email Dr. Maria Alonso for the latest versions.

(Cross)linguistic Speech Patterns as Bio-Social Markers for Psychiatric Disorders Workshop – October 31 – November 4, 2022

An exciting multidisciplinary symposium is being organized in the Netherlands by Dr. Iris Sommer and PhD student Hugo Corona Hernández later this year. The last day of the program will include an open forum including people with lived experience. This is open to all members of DISCOURSE consortium. Please contact Dr. Sommer for more details.

Organized by our partners in the Netherlands, Iris Sommer and Hugo Corona.

Here is a summary of the workshop.

Schizophrenia International Research Society 2022 Annual Congress – Discourse Symposia

At this year’s SIRS Congress, several Discourse members successfully presented an interesting symposia titled “Returning to the Linguistic Roots of Psychosis: Advancing Knowledge through International Collaboration” and “Therapeutic pathways for though and language dysfunction in psychosis.”

Listed below are the titles of individual speakers during this symposia. If you are interested in learning more about one of these talks, please contact Dr. Maria Alonso.

Quantitative Speech Assessment in Schizophrenia Spectrum Disorders: Exploring Diagnostic and Clinical Utility Presented by Eric Tan

Speech and Language Disturbances in Schizophrenia Are Related to Social Processing Presented by Sunny Tang

Progressive Changes in Descriptive Discourse in First Episode of Schizophrenia: A Longitudinal Natural Language Processing Study Presented by Maria Francisca Alonso

Vocal Acoustics as a Marker of Diagnosis, Symptoms and Social Features of Schizophrenia: Potentiality, Limits and Future Perspectives Presented by Alberto Parola

Frederike Stein, M.A. Presenter

Marburg University

Formal Thought disorders: Neuroimaging of Model Psychoses with Glutamatergic Substances and Transdiagnostic Findings in Patients with SZ, BD and MDD

09:55 – 10:15

Gill Bedi, B.A., B.Sc., Other Presenter

University of Melbourne

Acute Effects of Methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) on Human Speech Detected by Automated Natural Language Processing

10:15 – 10:35

Alban Voppel

UMC Groningen

Language Disturbances in Schizophrenia: The Relation with Antipsychotic Medication

10:35 – 10:55

Enzo Tagliazucchi, Ph.D. Presenter

University of Buenos Aires

Natural Language as a Window into the Psychotomimetic Properties of LSD, a Classical Psychedelic Drug

10:55 – 11:15

SIRS 2023 Toronto: Satellite Discourse Meeting

We are currently considering organizing an in-person program in Toronto during SIRS 2023. Stay tuned for more info.

Stay in touch via Twitter (@discourseinpsy) or Slack (discourseinpsychosis.slack.com)