Bio

 

I’m currently a postdoctoral researcher at the University of York, working on the MultiAge project of Angela de Bruin. MultiAge studies bilingual language control in healthy aging and aging with mild cognitive impairment. I still continue to collaborate with CogNID project team at the University of Nottingham on frontotemporal dementia using multimodal (structural, task fMRI, resting-state fMRI and MR spectroscopic) neuroimaging data, and various other smaller projects.

My research interests revolve around bi- and multilingualism, language control, and cognition in dementia and in the healthy adult brain. I do my best to carry out my work according to the field’s Open Scholarship standards for transparency and reproducibility, and I also investigate the application of Open Scholarship myself, as a proud member of the Framework for Open and Reproducible Research Training (FORRT) and the Feminist Wonder Lab.

I graduated from my PhD in 2024, and my work investigated the individual differences in the bilingual language switching and cognition abilities. I graduated with an MSc in Evolution of Language and Cognition (University of Edinburgh, 2017) and an MSc in Intercultural Communication (University of Warwick, 2015). I earned my undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2010 from Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”, Bulgaria.

 

Research experience

 

  • November 2024 - currently: Postdoctoral Research Associate, University of York. I’m working on MultiAge, a longitudinal multi-study project on bilingualism, healthy aging and aging with mild cognitive impairment. My participants are younger and older adults with a minority-language bilingual background, living in the UK. I’m collecting behavioural and fNIRS data.
  • June 2024 - October 2024: Postdoctoral Researcher at Birkbeck College, University of London. I collected behavioural, eye-tracking, video, and fNIRS data and developed lab procedures for an immersive virtual-reality, eye-tracking and fNIRS study.
  • May 2023 – May 2024: Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Nottingham. I collected and analysed multimodal (f)MRI/MRS, behavioural and neuropsychological data of frontotemporal and Alzheimer’s dementia patients and healthy older adults, to answer questions about the neural changes in dementia and their relationship to cognition. I also gained some practical experience in focused ultrasound brain stimulation (tFUS).
  • June – September 2021: Research Assistant, University of Birmingham. I collected data on the project Ready or Not.
  • April 2021 – April 2022: Research Assistant, University of Birmingham. I collected EEG data for the ESRC project The effects of individual differences in bilingual experience on cognitive control networks.
  • August 2019 – January 2020: Research Assistant, University of Birmingham. I investigated multilingual audiovisual integration.
  • June – November 2018: Language Consultant at What3Words.
  • November 2017 – January 2021: Sleep Study Research Assistant, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, the University of Oxford. I collected sleep polysomnography and tDCS data.
  • May – August 2017: Research Assistant, at the University of Edinburgh. I ran an fNIRS study of reactive and proactive control markers.
  • February - June 2014: Psychology Intern in Cognitive Psychophysiology, Institute of Neurobiology, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, Sofia, Bulgaria.
  • December 2012 – February 2013: Psychology Intern in the Centre for Military Psychology and Psychological Assessment, and the Psychiatry Clinic of Military Medical Academy, Sofia, Bulgaria.

 

Teaching experience

 

  • March 2024 - July 2025: Teaching Fellow at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham. I developed the module content for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience, and taught on an innovative fully digital MSc programme in Mental Health.
  • January 2022 – July 2023: Lecturer in Psychology at the Department of Education and Social Justice, University of Birmingham. I was the module lead for Quantitative Research Methods I, for Psychology of Education undergraduates. I also acted as a primary supervisor of MSc dissertations and mentored students.
  • September 2018 – April 2022: Teaching Associate at the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham.