Vitor Zimmerer

Vitor Zimmerer

@vitzim.bsky.social

Clinical linguistics at UCL

164 followers58 following108 posts

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

I am primary supervisor of three PhD students who did an excellent job at this year's Science of Aphasia, where we presented work on aphasia, dementia, and healthy ageing.

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Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

And yes, I am still working on determining how much analysis of collocation patterns in speech can help us understand and track language and cognitive disorders. I presented data from Alzheimer's disease.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

I am primary supervisor of three PhD students who did an excellent job at this year's Science of Aphasia, where we presented work on aphasia, dementia, and healthy ageing.

View full thread
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Ludovica Onofri presented her work on verb production in spontaneous speech of people with aphasia, which introduces a new approach to estimate how difficult it is to produce any given verb form.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Ioana Sederias presented her analysis of language changes in healthy ageing, considering other demographic variables. Without a good language model of healthy ageing we are limiting our ability to detect cognitive change resulting from Alzheimer's (which she will soon examine) and other conditions.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

I am primary supervisor of three PhD students who did an excellent job at this year's Science of Aphasia, where we presented work on aphasia, dementia, and healthy ageing.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Rinn Wang presented her design for a new sentence comprehension task, taking into account lexical biases (the likelihood of a word to occur in specific grammatical or collocational contexts), along with data from healthy participants.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Let's not forget that this is the shit the European right-wing wants to emulate. In the UK it's not just Reform; Tories would have taken the country down that road (Rwanda plan) if not for the meddling judges at the ECHR, from which conservatives want to withdraw. www.theguardian.com/us-news/ng-i...

theguardian.comBanished to alien lands: Trump’s secret deportation dealsAfter a plane journey in shackles, an Iranian woman found herself in the middle of Africa in a country she did not know existed. She is one of thousands deported from the US on the back of shadowy dea...
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Snapshots from our divisional GenAI Away Day: 40 colleagues responsible for assessment came together to share what they’ve learned about the impact of AI, discuss approaches to assessment design, and explore the role of AI in supporting students.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

#Farage says there was entrapment. As far as we can tell, there was none. What #Verbatim appears to have done is to say "Listen, we have money, how can we help?" All the illegal schemes were proposed by #Reform.

Vitor Zimmerer reposted

Retraction Watch
@retractionwatch.com

A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses Elsevier, Springer Nature, Wiley and Informa of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges.

retractionwatch.comFederal lawsuit accuses four major publishers of extorting article processing chargesiStock A lawsuit filed under the U.S. False Claims Act accuses four major publishers of perpetrating a decade-long scheme to defraud the government by charging exorbitant article processing charges…
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

In seinem Nicht-Interview mit Ben Bernd von {ungeskriptet} bemühte sich Björn Höcke um eine akzeptablere Darstellung der extremen Rechte und präsentierte Ideen, die bereits in anderen Ländern gescheitert sind. www.vitorzimmerer.net/blog/2026/5/...

vitorzimmerer.netBjörn Höckes Lösungen — The Palace of Green PorcelainAuch ich habe jetzt das Wahlkampfmaterial mit Björn Höcke gesehen. Eine über vierstündige Begegnung mit “Ben” auf seinem Kanal “ungeskriptet” , in der sich der Thüringer Landesvorsitzende der AfD vor...
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

I am going to speak at the University of Reading on May 7th, midday (I don't know where yet). My talk will be mainly about language in aphasia and dementia.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

We had interesting (and urgent) discussions at our panels on GenAI/LLM use in academia and beyond, and what it means for higher education. Thank you to @pattiadank.bsky.social , Carolyn McGettigan and Martin Dechant from UCL, and Yu Jiaao from Innovate ADHD! Events funded by ChangeMakers at UCL.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

I wrote a blog post about our latest publication on the language output in aphasia and schizophrenia, what it can teach us about how language relates to thought (disorder), and how language can be used to track cognitive health. www.vitorzimmerer.net/blog/2026/1/...

vitorzimmerer.netThe relationship between language disorder and thought disorder: Comparing micro- and macrostructure of spoken narratives of people with aphasia and people with schizophrenia — The Palace of Green Por...Zimmerer, V., Tsoukala, A., Çokal, D., Sevilla, G., Douglas, M., Jones, W., ... & Hinzen, W. (2026). The relationship between language disorder and thought disorder: comparing micro-and macrostruc...
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

New paper! To understand the relationship between language and other cognitive functions, we compared the language production of people with aphasia (primary language disorder) with that of people with schizophrenia (disorder of thought). www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.comThe relationship between language disorder and thought disorder: Comparing micro- and macrostructure of spoken narratives of people with aphasia and people with schizophreniaLinguistic profiles in neurological and psychiatric conditions offer critical insights into the relationship between language and broader cognitive fu…
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

"Generative AI is an engine for churning out contaminated information faster than people can produce safe information."

Kevin Veale 😷 (Toitū Te Tiriti)@krveale.bsky.social

Let's talk about generative AI, contaminated information, and rhubarb. Once upon a time, Europe was at war. Food was scarce, and the government of the quote-unquote United Kingdom looked for alternatives. 1/

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

My favourite album of 2025, in no particular order: THE FUTURE IS HERE AND EVERYTHING NEEDS TO BE DESTROYED - The Armed Scholars - Car Seat Headrest Blue Reminder - Hand Habits

Vitor Zimmerer reposted

Stephen Curry
@scurry.bsky.social

Now almost 450 signatories to my open letter calling on the @royalsociety.org to stand up for its values & deal with the widespread concerns raised by Elon Musk's Fellowship. Please consider signing & sharing: forms.gle/miDciq35oxyw... List of signatories here: occamstypewriter.org/scurry/2025/...

forms.gleOpen letter to the President of the Royal Society – time to stand up for your valuesIf you wish to show your support for the letter below regarding apparent inaction by the Royal Society in the face of breaches of its code of conduct by Elon Musk FRS, please sign below. I invite anyo...

Vitor Zimmerer reposted

Dementia Researcher
@dementiaresearcher.bsky.social

The UK Dementia Research Institute @ukdri.bsky.social at UCL is seeking a Data Research Assistant to join their Core Informatics team working with large datasets. Closing date: 7th January www.dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.uk/job/data-res...

dementiaresearcher.nihr.ac.ukData Research Assistant - DEMENTIA RESEARCHERThe UK Dementia Research Institute at UCL is seeking a Data Research Assistant to join their Core Informatics team working with large datasets.
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Revealed: bias found in AI system used to detect UK benefits fraud www.theguardian.com/society/2024... It is bizarre how UK ministerial departments are already relying on AI for decision making given how little we understand about working with these systems. Looks like there was next to no testing.

theguardian.comRevealed: bias found in AI system used to detect UK benefits fraudExclusive: Age, disability, marital status and nationality influence decisions to investigate claims, prompting fears of ‘hurt first, fix later’ approach
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Amazing quote from the DWP. If you have the system make suggestions, you are replacing some of the judgment even if the human needs to sign off. The system was bought to offload human judgment.

Vitor Zimmerer reposted

Anna Hockley
@ahockley.bsky.social

Are you an adult community SLT in the UK? Want to give your views on the SLT role in communication in #dementia? We're looking for a couple more participants to join a final online focus group on Monday 2nd Dec at 11am. Email me: a.hockley@ucl.ac.uk for more info. #bskySPEECHIES

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Easy in the age of AI: "Strong south to southwest winds will blow all day Sunday but will get weaker in the afternoon and evening as heavy rain moves away to the east. Winds could reach 45-55 mph in most places. Some exposed areas, like high hills or south-facing coasts, may get gusts of 60-65 mph.

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

We analysed spontaneous language production in speakers with Williams syndrome and two control groups. Blog post contains link to (free) article in Journal of Child Language. www.vitorzimmerer.net/blog/2024/10...

vitorzimmerer.netOveruse of familiar phrases by individuals with Williams syndrome masks differences in language processing. — The Palace of Green PorcelainSederias I, Krakovitch A, Stojanovik V, Zimmerer VC (2024). Overuse of familiar phrases by individuals with Williams syndrome masks differences in language processing. Journal of Child Language . Pub...
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Ludovica Onofri, Holly Robson and me (+ some weird lighting) at the Science of Aphasia conference in Geneva. Many interesting talks, including on perinatal stroke and plasticity, aphasia in multilinguals and different aspects of (re)learning. See you next year in Kopenhagen!

Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Our investigation of speech pauses in people with #aphasia and controls without brain damage shows how pauses are less likely within stronger word collocations, providing evidence that strong collocations may be processed as one lexicalized unit. Read for free: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

sciencedirect.comSpeech pauses in speakers with and without aphasia: A usage-based approachPauses in speech are indicators of cognitive effort during language production and have been examined to inform theories of lexical, grammatical and d…
Vitor Zimmerer
@vitzim.bsky.social

Shame it's Sunak suggesting mandatory national service - now everyone feels they need to hate it. These schemes are not perfect, but there are many good effects where in place. However, there is no way Sunak would get enough support from his party. He's going to lose so he can just promise whatever.