Associate Professor of Linguistics
Khalil Iskarous is an Associate Professor in Linguistics at USC. He’s interested in animal motor control, from the undulation of worms to the smooth maneuverings of octopus arms, and the agile motions of the human tongue, which are responsible for many hundreds of sound distinctions in the world’s languages. The new low-field MRI facility at MCB will facilitate the simultaneous study of the dexterous tongue and the acoustics of speech in novel ways, opening the door, not only to our understanding of animal motor control, but also to understanding many atypical speech behaviors.