Contact
University of Pittsburgh
Communication Sciences and Disorders
4028 Forbes Tower
Pittsburgh, PA, 15260
f.llanos at pitt dot edu

Welcome! 

​​I'm a postdoctoral associate in Bharath Chandrasekaran's SoundBrain lab, University of Pittsburgh. Broadly, I investigate how people process and acquire speech sounds and categories across multiple languages, including Spanish, English, and Chinese. My research program triangulates on these questions using psycholinguistics, neuroimaging, brain stimulation, and machine learning. My goal is to develop computational and neurobiologically-informed models to test theoretical predictions and inform clinical treatments

Recent publications

  • Llanos, F., McHaney, J. R., Schuerman, W. L., Yi, H. G., Leonard, M. K., & Chandrasekaran, B. (in review). Non-invasive peripheral nerve stimulation enhances speech category learning in adults.
  • Feng, G., Gan, Z., Llanos, F., Meng, D., Wang, S., Wong, P., & Chandrasekaran, B. (in review). A distributed dynamic brain network underlies speech perceptual constancy and categorization decision.
  • Llanos, F., Xie, Z., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2019). Biometric identification of listener identity from frequency following responses to speech. Journal of Neural Engineering, 16(5). https://doi.org/10.1088/1741-2552/ab1e01.
  • Kluender, K. R., Stilp, C. E., & Llanos, F. (2019). Long-standing problems in speech perception dissolve within an information-theoretic perspective. Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics, 81(4), 861-883.
  • Reetzke, R., Xie, Z., Llanos, F., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2018). Tracing the trajectory of auditory plasticity from novice to native-like speech categorization in adulthood. Current Biology, 28, 1419-1427.
  • Llanos, F., Xie, Z., & Chandrasekaran, B. (2017). Hidden Markov modeling of frequency following responses to Mandarin lexical tones. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 291, 101-112.
  • Wang, Y., Llanos, F., & Seidl, A. (2017). Infants adapt to speaking rate differences in word segmentation. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(4), 2569-2578.
  • Llanos, F., Alexander, J. M., Stilp, C. E., & Kluender, K. R. (2017). Power spectral entropy as an information-theoretic correlate of manner of articulation in American English. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 141(2), EL127-EL133.
  • Llanos, F., & Francis, A. L. (2016) The effects of language experience and speech context on the phonetic accommodation of English-accented Spanish voicing. Language and Speech, 60(1), 3-26.
  • Dmitrieva, O., Llanos, F., Shultz, A. A., & Francis, A. L. (2015). Phonological status, not voice onset time, determines the acoustic realization of onset f0 as a secondary voicing cue in Spanish and English. Journal of Phonetics, 49, 77-95.
  • Llanos, F., Dmitrieva, O., Shultz, A. A., & Francis, A. L. (2013). Auditory enhancement and second language experience in Spanish and English weighting of secondary voicing cues. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 134(3), 2213-2224.
  • Shultz, A. A., Francis, A. L., & Llanos, F. (2012). Differential cue weighting in perception and production of consonant voicing. JASA Express Letters, 132(2), EL95-EL101.