LAMBDA: Language Markers and Brain Dysfunction in Early Psychosis
Principal Investigators
- Dr. Derya Çokal | Institute for German Language and Literature I
- Prof. Dr. Klaus von Heusinger | Institute for German Language and Literature I
- Prof. Dr. Joseph Kambeitz | Psychiatry und Psychotherapy
- Prof. Dr. Dr. Kai Vogeley | Psychiatry und Psychotherapy
In cooperation with
We delve into the fascinating link between language and mental life. Discover how language function is emerging as a promising bio-social marker for mental state changes, particularly in psychosis. This is a unique collaboration between biological psychiatry, linguistics, and cognitive neuroscience that identifies linguistic signals of psychosis and their connection to brain dysfunction using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). To support our project, we have expanded our team by welcoming Annkathrin Böke, Alexander Ilgert, Marlen Boesch, and Martín Villalba.
Our research initiative involves a collaboration that combines the expertise of these three fields. By joining forces, we aim to identify linguistic signals within language that could serve as indicators of psychosis. Furthermore, we seek to establish meaningful connections between these linguistic markers and the underlying brain dysfunction associated with this condition. To achieve this, we employ the power of fMRI to reveal the intricate relationship between language and the brain.
At the Max Planck Institute for Metabolism Research in Cologne, we have implemented a new fMRI paradigm in which participants listen to short stories, while also linking resting-state data to speech data collected outside the scanner. We are currently analyzing our data and sharing our results.
This groundbreaking research is paving the way for a deeper understanding of the mechanisms of language in the brain and the role of language in psychotic thought.
Talks at Kogwis 2025 hosted at Ruhr-University Bochum:
In collaboration with Prof. Emre Bora from Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey, we are thrilled to announce that we will be giving two talks at Kogwis 2025:
1. Speech Disfluency as a Cognitive-Linguistic Marker of Early Psychosis
2. Causal Connectives and Cognitive Flexibility in First-Episode Psychosis
We look forward to sharing our research, including our work on a Turkish dataset, and engaging with the community at this exciting event!
Our first Workshop
We successfully conducted our first workshop titled "Exploring the Interplay between Language and Psychosis: Insights from Neurolinguistics and Cognitive Neuroscience" at the DGPPN Congress 2023 in Berlin.
The University Magazine Feature
The University Magazin reports on our project in its recent issues.
Collaborative Work Presentation
We have presented our collaborative work with Prof. Emre Bora at the Discourse in Psychosis Satellite Meeting 2024.
Ongoing Project
We are part of the following project: AMPSCZ, which involves the collection of both free speech and rsMRI data.
Recent Project Presentation
Our recent project on using crowdsourcing to quantify the stability of speech measures across time was presented at the annual meeting of the Trusting project in June 2024.
Recent Publication
Joseph Kambeitz has published “The Empirical Structure of Psychopathology is Represented in Large Language Models” (Research Square).
New Publications
Çokal, Derya; Villalba, Martin; He, Rui; Flores Palominos, Claudio; Boke, Annkathrin; Homan, Philipp; von Heusinger, Klaus; Kambeitz, Joseph and Hinzen, Wolfram. What is the retest reliability of computationally extractable speech and language markers? (2026). Computer and language use. https://authors.elsevier.com/sd/article/S0885-2308(26)00044-6
Çokal, Derya; Aloraini, Abdulrahman; Flores Palominos, Claudio; Demirlek, Cemal; Verim, Burcu; Yalınçetin, Berna. (2026). Three dimensions of speech coherence in people with early psychosis and their family members. Schizophr 12, 2. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41537-025-00703-0