Céline De Looze, PhD

Research Fellow in Cognitive Neuroscience, The Irish Longitudinal Study on Ageing (TILDA), Trinity College Dublin

Céline De Looze is a research fellow in cognitive neuroscience. She is the lead of the Cognitive Neuroscience and MRI research groups in TILDA. She joined TILDA in 2018. Her research aims to investigate the risk and protective factors associated with cardiovascular, brain and cognitive health in a multi-system perspective. Focused on the heart-brain axis, she examines the effects of behavioural factors (e.g. chronic stress, sleep) on the cardiovascular system and the brain. She investigates how the cardiovascular system and the brain interact with each other and respond to these stressors, and examines the cascade of these effects on cognitive trajectories in older age. Her research interests also include the study of behavioural measures for the monitoring of cognitive function, with a focus on developing quantitative methods for the analysis of speech, association with cognitive function and underlying brain correlates in neurodegenerative diseases and high-workload environments. Céline completed her PhD in Speech and Language Sciences in 2010 at the Laboratoire Parole et Langage, Aix-Marseille University. In her early postdoctoral research years, she investigated the speech characteristics of individuals with Parkinson’s disease and Multiple Sclerosis. In 2015, she received a Centre for Ageing Research and Development in Ireland grant to investigate the speech characteristics and underlying neural correlates of individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Céline also lectured in the English Department and the Department of General Linguistics and Phonetics, at Aix-Marseille University and in the School of Linguistic, Speech and Communication Sciences and School of Engineering in TCD. Céline has also been involved in research commercialisation projects. In 2012, she received an Entreprise Ireland Commercialisation Fund Program grant to develop a technology for the monitoring of airline pilots’ communication skills. She has been consultant for research and technology development for the starts-up Vocavio and Kids Speech Labs.