John Connolly

Biography

Dr. John Connolly is the Senator William McMaster Chair in the Cognitive Neuroscience of Language (2010; renewed 2015). He co-directs the Language, Memory & Brain Lab with Dr. Elisabet Service.  Dr. Connolly has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals for 35 years. He has been an invited speaker at numerous scientific conferences in Europe, Asia, and North America. His research has been supported by Canadian, American, British, and European funding agencies. He has served on the Editorial Board and as an Associate Editor of Clinical Neurophysiology, on the Editorial Board of the International Journal of Psychophysiology, and reviews regularly for a range of journals. He has also served as reviewer for North American, European and Asian agencies and institutions and as a panel reviewer for the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, the National Institutes of Health, and the Department of Defense.

Research Interest

His areas of investigation include the cognitive neuroscience of language with particular emphasis on the use of brain imaging techniques (e.g., event-related potentials, magnetoencephalography, and functional magnetic resonance imaging) in the study of speech processing and reading. His research includes applications to brain injury with reference to disorders of consciousness in the unresponsive wakefulness syndrome, minimally conscious states and coma. This work focuses on developing brain imaging tools to enable the assessment of cognitive functioning in patients who are unable to communicate through language or gesture. His work also includes research in both assessment and brain-computer interfacing with locked-in syndrome patients.