Aitor Egurtzegi

Recently I have focused my time doing data analysis with a focus on Machine Learning and Bayesian hierarchical regression. Particularly, I've been tackling the status of word categories in a two-fold manner: on the one hand by preprocessing, analyzing, and visualizing MEG data looking for spatial underpinnings of said categories and on the other hand by developing NLP pipelines working with state-of-the-art language models to analyze said word categories using clustering methods, running cloud computing jobs using a Unix-based system.

Moreover, I've been doing experimental work to collect eye tracking and EEG data and analyze it in a Bayesian framework for low-resourced languages that are typologically different from the most common spoken languages.

The key point I've found out is: the language you speak affects how you perceive the world around you.

For instance, speakers of ergative languages such as Basque, Georgian, or Hindi spend less time looking at agents and more time looking at the overall picture to faster grasp the action, since their grammar requires them to know this faster than speakers of nominative languages such as English, German, or Spanish.

Additionally, these language-based differences in perception are also appreciated in the brain activity, with the latter languages needing a stronger activation of the neuronal population because they entertain more, competing structures.

Eye tracking

Alpha left frontal activity

For more information on my work, see my latest publications in Brain and Language and PLOS Biology.