Dr. Kate Watkins

Biography

Kate Watkins is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, appointed as Associate Professor in 2006 and as a Professor in 2014. She trained in neuropsychology at the Institute of Child Health and at Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, where her doctoral research focused on the KE family, who have a severe motor speech disorder linked to a variant of the FOXP2 gene. After completing her post-doctoral training at the Montreal Neurological Institute, she employed Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) to explore the role of the motor cortex in speech perception. Her research interests lie in understanding how the brain communicates using speech and language, aimed at individuals with difficulties in these areas. She has investigated a wide range of populations including children and adults with developmental disorders such as stuttering and Developmental Language Disorder (DLD). Through her work, she has utilized various methodologies including cognitive testing, brain imaging, and brain stimulation to further explore the cognitive neuroscience underlying speech and language processes.

Research Interests