I handle day-to-day operations of the Emory FERN MRI research center. My goal is to help new and experienced users take advantage of the capabilities of MRI to address a diverse range of research questions safely and effectively.
Biography
I received a B.S. in Bioengineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2002 and a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences from the University of Rochester in 2007. Following postdoctoral fellowships in the School of Psychology and the Center for Advanced Brain Imaging (CABI) at the Georgia Institute of Technology, I joined CABI as research staff in 2011. I moved to Emory University in 2013 as a Scientist and Facility Manager when the Facility for Education and Research in Neuroscience (FERN) began operations.
Research
My own research background focuses on how adult listeners understand spoken language, a process that healthy adults perform with exceptional skill despite the rapid pace at which words in fluent speech are presented. Using eyetracking, I examine how context (your knowledge of the world around you or the words you have already heard) affects the time course of spoken word recognition. I also use fMRI to measure the activation of brain-based semantic representations in response to speech and sound symbolic language. By combining these different perspectives and methodologies, I hope to better understand how spoken word recognition and word meaning interact with each other.
Additionally, I have expertise in fMRI experiment design and data analysis using multiple data analysis packages (AFNI, SPM, FSL). I am a coinvestigator on several research projects spanning from healthy adult language processing to motor control and rehabilitation following stroke.
Selected Publications
Google Scholar
Gray matter volume of functionally relevant primary motor cortex is causally related to learning a hand motor task. Cobia D, Haut MW, Revill KP, Rellick SL, Nudo RJ, Wischnewski M, Buetefisch CM. Cereb Cortex. 2024 May 2; 34(5):bhae210. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhae210.
Evaluating the abnormality of bilateral motor cortex activity in subacute stroke patients executing a unimanual motor task with increasing demand on precision. Revill KP, Barany DA, Vernon I, Rellick S, Caliban A, Tran J, Belagaje SR, Nahab F, Haut MW, Buetefisch CM. Front Neurol. 2022 May 25; 13:836716. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2022.836716.
Hebbian-type primary motor cortex stimulation: A potential treatment of impaired hand function in chronic stroke patients. Revill KP, Haut MW, Belagaje SR, Nahab F, Drake D, Buetefisch CM. Neurorehabil Neural Repair. 2020 Feb; 34(2):159-171. doi: 10.1177/1545968319899911.
Eye movements reveal persistent sensitivity to sound symbolism during word learning. Revill KP, Namy LL, Nygaard LC. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2018 May; 44(5):680-698. doi: 10.1037/xlm0000476.
Cross-linguistic sound symbolism and crossmodal correspondence: Evidence from fMRI and DTI. Revill KP, Namy LL, DeFife LC, Nygaard LC. Brain Lang. 2014 Jan; 128(1):18-24. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2013.11.002.
The effect of lexical frequency on spoken word recognition in young and older listeners. Revill KP, Spieler DH. Psychol Aging. 2012 Mar; 27(1):80-7. doi: 10.1037/a0024113.
Neural correlates of partial lexical activation. Revill KP, Aslin RN, Tanenhaus MK, Bavelier D. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2008 Sep 2; 105(35):13111-5. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0807054105.
Context and spoken word recognition in a novel lexicon. Revill KP, Tanenhaus MK, Aslin RN. J Exp Psychol Learn Mem Cogn. 2008 Sep; 34(5):1207-23. doi: 10.1037/a0012796.
