The CAANLab Team
Director
Dr. Benjamin Zendel
Dr. Zendel holds a Canada Research Chair in Aging and Auditory Neuroscience, and is an Associate Professor in the Faculty of Medicine at Memorial University of Newfoundland. Most recently, Dr. Zendel completed a post-doctoral fellowship at Université de Montréal, where he conducted research at both the Centre de recherche de l'Institut universitaire de gériatrie de Montréal (CRIUGM) and at The International Laboratory for Brain, Music and Sound Research (BRAMS). He earned a Ph.D. and M.A. in Psychology from the University of Toronto, while working at the Rotman Research Instituite, and earned his B.A. (hons) in Psychology from the University of Calgary.
Post-doctoral Fellow
Amour Simal
Ph.D. Students
Özgen Demirkaplan
Özgen Demirkaplan is a doctoral student in Neuroscience at Memorial University. She completed her BA in Philosophy at Bilkent University and MSc in Cognitive Science at the Middle East Technical University. For her Masters she studied voice familiarity effect on auditory distance perception. Her research interests include cognitive aspects of auditory and speech perception.
Praveena Satkunarajah
Praveena is currently a PhD student in Neuroscience in Memorial University. She completed her Bachelor’s in Computer Science in Nanyang Technological University. Her interests include machine learning and computational neuroscience. She is currently using machine learning techniques to better understand how timbre is encoded in EEG signals
Laura Howell
Laura Howell is a doctoral student in Linguistics at Memorial University. She completed a comprehensive paper for her doctoral program in the CAANLab, and is currently working on her PhD on the neuroscience of dialect and accent. Her research interests include: Sociolinguistics; Language Variation and Change; Dialect Contact; Newfoundland English.
Pegah Dehghan
Pegah Dehgan is a PhD student in Neuroscience at Memorial University. Pegah earned a Masters of Science in Psychology from Shahid Bahonar University, and before that she earned a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from Fasa University. She is exploring how we understand speech when there is loud background noise. Her research uses both statistical modeling, and auditory training in order to better understand how we could improve the ability to understand speech when there is loud background noise
Masters Students
Stephen Cooke
Stephen is currently a Masters student in Neuroscience at Memorial University. He completed an Honours degree in Psychology at Memorial University in 2021. He is currently exploring how aging impacts the perception of rhythm and meter in music.
Danica Robichaud
Danica is doing her Masters degree in Psychology at Memorial University, and is being co-supervised by Dr. Heath Matheson. She completed an honours degree in the CAANLab which examined how the brain tracks the tonal hierarchy. For her Masters she will look at how musicians embody the memory of musical pieces.
Logan Barrett
Logan is a Master’s student in Neuroscience at Memorial University. He previously completed a Master’s degree in Music and Science at Durham University and a Bachelor's degree in Music Cognition and Neuroscience at Ithaca College. His interests include emotional perceptions of music, music as medicine, and performance science. His current project explores the effect of aging on musical expectancy.
Bhavya Sehgal
Bhavya Sehgal completed her undergraduate Honours degree in psychology at Memorial University. Her project explored how engagement in a VR task impacts neural processing of sound. She is currently working on her MSc in Psychology. Her project will look at the neuroscience of dance
Sophie Hale
Sophie is currently a MSc. Medicine (Neurosciences) student at Memorial University. Sophie completed her Bachelor of Music from Memorial in 2024, where her research and involvement in the faculty of music fostered her interest in the relationships between music and health. Her Masters research will involve looking at cognitive processes and connections involved in choral singing and hearing health, particularly in individuals experiencing normative hearing loss.
Undergraduate Students
Grace Fitzgerald
Grace is an undergraduate student at MUN working on a Bachelors degree in Behavioural Neuroscience with a minor in Human Biosciences. She is a research assistant in the CAANLab. Her interests include hearing loss and music training as a preventive measure for cognitive impairment.
Staff
Alumni
Alicia Follett (2021-24; MSc Neuroscience)
Christina Dove (2020-23; PhD Student)
Liam Robbins (2020-23; Medical Student)
Sarah Sauvé (2018-22; Post-doctoral Fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University)
Zoha Rabie (2020-2022; Lab manager)
Emily Alexander (2017-2021; Lab manager, Undergraduate honours student)
Bethany Power (2016-2021; Medical student, Undergraduate honours student)
Emily Bolt (2015-2020; Medical student, Undergraduate honours student)
Alex Cho (2019-20; Research assistant, Composer)
Liam Foley (2018-19; Research assistant, SURA summer research student)
Dr. David Fleming (2016-18; Post-doctoral fellow, Faculty of Medicine, Memorial University)
Olivier Dussault (2014-16; NSERC summer research student, Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal)
Marianne Bissonnette (2015; Research assistant, Université de Montréal)
Giulia Castelletti (2014-15; Graduate exchange student, University of Trento)
Merwin Olthof (2014-15; Graduate exchange student, University of Amsterdam)
Camille Rivard (2013-14; Research assistant, Université de Montréal)
Charles-David Tremblay (2012-14; Honours Student, Département de Psychologie, Université de Montréal)