Staff Profile

Introduction

After my studies in Linguistics and Phonetics in Leipzig, Lausanne and Geneva I finished my PhD-thesis on French intonation in 1993. Since 1995 I participated to built up a speaking computer (Concept-to-Speech system) at the Austrian Institute for Artificial Intelligence in Vienna. From 1997 I focussed my research on the Human Brain at the Max-Planck Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. In 1999 I was appointed by the President of the Max-Planck Society as Independent Junior Research Group Leader and worked with my own group on 'Neurocognition of Prosody' using EEG, MEG, and fMRI.

Qualifications

2002 Habilitation University of Leipzig
1994 PhD Linguistics University of Leipzig
1993 post-grade Linguistics University of Geneva
1993 post-grade Phonetics University of Lausanne
1990 Master Linguistics University of Leipzig
1988 Master Russian Language University of Belgorod

Current Position

Senior Lecturer in Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience, Newcastle University, Institute of Neuroscience

Affiliated Lecturer at the Faculty of Modern and Medieval Languages and Linguistics (MMLL) and the Languages Sciences Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge

Awards

Oxford Visiting Senior Research Fellowship, Language&Brain Lab, Faculty of Linguistics, Philology and Phonetics; 06/2015 – 09/2017

Associate Member of Laboratorio de Fonetica & Lisbon Baby Lab, Dept. Linguistica, Faculdade de Letras, Universidade de Lisboa, since March 2017

Research Associate at the Tuebingen University Hospital for Psychiatry since September 2017

Convenor, Cross-Faculty Phonetics and Phonology Research Group, since July 2017

Independent Junior Research Group Leader at the Max-Planck Institute of Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences appointed by the President of the Max-Planck Society; 06/1999 – 06/2004

Languages

English
French
German
Russian

I am involved in auditory neuroscience leading several projects on speech and language processing employing different behavioural and neuro-imaging methods in both healthy volunteers and patients. In 2015, I have been awarded a Visiting Senior Fellowship at the University of Oxford. In 2021 I have been awarded grant of title as Affiliated Lecturer at the University of Cambridge.

I have more than 130 publications including about 100 journal papers and enjoy more than 6600 citations (h-index 42). Overall, I have co-supervised 22 PhD students and 8 PDRAs. I am currently co-supervising 5 PhD students and 1 PDRA.

During the past 12 years, I have been awarded with international and national grants at a value of £1.8Million.

Research Interests

Cognitive Neuroscience

• Comparison between language and music processing

• Neurocognition of prosody and intonation in children with Lisbon University (Sonia Frota)

• Neurocognition of prosody with University of Cambridge (Brechtje Post)

• Turn taking in communication (with Laurence White at Newcastle University)

• Tinnitus and EEG (with Will Sedley at Newcastle University)

• Dyslexia and working memory (with Ghada Khattab and Faye Smith at Newcastle University)

• Laughter and Brain (with Dirk Wildgruber at Tuebingen University/GE)

Auditory processing

• developmental aspects of speech & language processing

• speech segmentation on phrase and discourse level using ERPs and fMRI

• processing of durational, tonal, and spectral properties related to voice

I am interested in brain responses during auditory processing in speech and language and music with respect to prosodic and emotional information. I am also involved in auditory processing in patients suffering from Tinnitus using behavioral and EEG measures.

Other Expertise

I have acted as a reviewer for national and international Research Foundations (Human Frontier Science Program, ERC, German Research Foundation, Netherlands Organisation of Scientific Research, Austrian Research Foundation, French Research Foundation; MRC, ASRC, ESRC, Wellcome Trust etc.) and for international journals.

I am co-Convenor of the cross-Faculty Research Group on Phonetics and Phonology at Newcastle University (with Ghada Khattab and Rory Turnbull from Newcastle University).

I was awarded a Honorary appointment as Research Associate in Neurology by the NHS Trust in Newcastle allowing to continue my work with neurological patients.

I am Module Leader for 'Physiology of Speech and Language' and 'Language Pathology'.

I am teaching future Speech and Language Therapists.

I am also teaching Neuroscience: from cell to cognition.

• Articles

  • Yukhnovich EA, Alter K, Sedley W. What Do Mismatch Negativity (MMN) Responses Tell Us About Tinnitus?. Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 2024, 1-15.
  • Yue J, Bastiaanse R, Howard D, Alter K. Representational level matters for tone word recognition: Evidence from form priming. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 2024, 77(5), 1125-1135.
  • Yukhnovich EA, Alter K, Sedley W. Nuances in intensity deviant asymmetric responses as a biomarker for tinnitus. PLoS ONE 2023, 18(8), e0289062.
  • Jennings JL, Peraza LR, Baker M, Alter K, Taylor J-P, Bauer R. Investigating the power of eyes open resting state EEG for assisting in dementia diagnosis. Alzheimer's Research and Therapy 2022, 14(1), 90.
  • Griffiths TD, Alter K, Shinn-Cunningham B. Speech Biomechanics: Shaping new sounds. eLife 2020, 9, e55749.
  • Silva S, Vigário M, LeoneFernandez B, Jerónimo R, Alter K, Frota S. The sense of sounds: Brain responses to phonotactic frequency, phonological grammar and lexical meaning. Frontiers in Psychology 2019, 10, 681.
  • Susilaradeya D, Xu W, Hall T, Galán F, Alter K, Jackson A. Extrinsic and Intrinsic Dynamics in Movement Intermittency. eLife 2019, 8, e40145.
  • Sedley W, Alter K, Gander P, Berger J, Griffiths T. Exposing pathological sensory predictions in tinnitus using auditory intensity deviant evoked responses. Journal of Neuroscience 2019, 39(50), 10096-10103.
  • Liu X, Xu Y, Alter K, Tuomainen J. Emotional Connotations of Musical Instrument Timbre in Comparison With Emotional Speech Prosody: Evidence From Acoustics and Event-Related Potentials. Frontiers in Psychology 2018, 9, 737.
  • Yue J, Alter K, Howard D, Bastiaanse R. Early access to lexical-level phonological representations of Mandarin word-forms: Evidence from auditory N1 habituation. Language, Cognition and Neuroscience 2017, 32(9), 1148-1163.
  • Attaheri A, Kikuchi Y, Milne AE, Wilson B, Alter K, Petkov CI. EEG potentials associated with artificial grammar learning in the primate brain. Brain and Language 2015, 148, 74-80.
  • Galan F, Baker MR, Alter K, Baker SN. Degraded EEG Decoding of Wrist Movements in Absence of Kinaesthetic Feedback. Human Brain Mapping 2015, 36(2), 643-654.
  • Henrich K, Alter K, Wiese R, Domahs U. The relevance of rhythmical alternation in language processing: An ERP study on English compounds. Brain and Language 2014, 136, 19-30.
  • Yue JX, Bastiaanse R, Alter K. Cortical plasticity induced by rapid Hebbian learning of novel tonal word-forms: Evidence from mismatch negativity. Brain and Language 2014, 139, 10-22.
  • Wildgruber D, Szameitat DP, Ethofer T, Brück C, Alter K, Grodd W, Kreifelts B. Different types of laughter modulate connectivity within distinct parts of the laughter perception network. PLoS One 2013, 8(5), e63441.
  • Roll M, Lindgren M, Alter K, Horne M. Time-driven effects on parsing during reading. Brain and Language 2012, 121(3), 267-272.
  • Furl N, Kumar S, Alter K, Durrant S, Shawe-Taylor J, Griffiths TD. Neural prediction of higher-order auditory sequence statistics. NeuroImage 2011, 54(3), 2267-2277.
  • Szameitat DP, Darwin CJ, Szameitat AJ, Wildgruber D, Alter K. Formant characteristics of human laughter. Journal of Voice 2011, 25(1), 32-37.
  • Szameitat DP, Darwin CJ, Wildgruber D, Alter K, Szameitat AJ. Acoustic correlates of emotional dimensions in laughter: Arousal, dominance, and valence. Cognition & Emotion 2011, 25(4), 599-611.
  • Szameitat DP, Kreifelts B, Alter K, Szameitat AJ, Sterr A, Grodd W, Wildgruber D. It is not always tickling: Distinct cerebral responses during perception of different laughter types. NeuroImage 2010, 53(4), 1264-1271.
  • Tervaniemi M, Kruck S, De Baene W, Schroger E, Alter K, Friederici AD. Top-down modulation of auditory processing: effects of sound context, musical expertise and attentional focus. European Journal of Neuroscience 2009, 30(8), 1636-1642.
  • Szameitat DP, Alter K, Szameitat AJ, Darwin CJ, Wildgruber D, Dietrich S, Sterr A. Differentiation of Emotions in Laughter at the Behavioral Level. Emotion 2009, 9(3), 397-405.
  • Szameitat DP, Alter K, Szameitat AJ, Wildgruber D, Sterr A, Darwin CJ. Acoustic profiles of distinct emotional expressions in laughter. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2009, 126(1), 354-366.
  • Dietrich S, Hertrich I, Alter K, Ischebeck A, Ackermann H. Understanding the emotional expression of verbal interjections: a functional MRI study. NeuroReport 2008, 19(18), 1751-1755.
  • Zaehle T, Geiser E, Alter K, Jancke L, Meyer M. Segmental processing in the human auditory dorsal stream. Brain Research 2008, 1220, 179-190.
  • Roopun AK, Cunningham MO, Racca C, Alter K, Traub RD, Whittington MA. Region-specific changes in gamma and beta2 rhythms in NMDA receptor dysfunction models of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Bulletin 2008, 34(5), 962-973.
  • Ischebeck A, Friederici A, Alter K. Processing prosodic boundaries in natural and hummed speech: An fMRI study. Cerebral Cortex 2008, 18(3), 541-552.
  • Mietz A, Toepel U, Ischebeck A, Alter K. Inadequate and infrequent are not alike: ERPs to deviant prosodic patterns in spoken sentence comprehension. Brain and Language 2008, 104(2), 159-169.
  • Dietrich S, Hertrich I, Alter K, Ischebeck A, Ackermann H. Semiotic aspects of human nonverbal vocalizations: A functional imaging study. NeuroReport 2007, 18(18), 1891-1894.
  • Stolterfoht B, Friederici A, Alter K, Steube A. Processing focus structure and implicit prosody during reading: Differential ERP effects. Cognition 2007, 104(3), 565-590.
  • Meyer M, Baumann S, Wildgruber D, Alter K. How the brain laughs: Evidence from Neuropsychology, Neurophysiology, and Neuroimaging. Behavioural Brain Research 2007, 182(2), 245-260.
  • Meyer M, Baumann S, Wildgruber D, Alter K. How the brain laughs. Comparative evidence from behavioral, electrophysiological and neuroimaging studies in human and monkey. Behavioural Brain Research 2007, 182(2), 245-260.
  • Ashton H, Reid K, Marsh R, Johnson I, Alter K, Griffiths T. High frequency localised "hot spots" in temporal lobes of patients with intractable tinnitus: A quantitative electroencephalographic (QEEG) study. Neuroscience Letters 2007, 426(1), 23-28.
  • Toepel U, Pannekamp A, Alter K. Catching the news: Processing strategies in listening to dialogs as measured by ERPs. Behavioral and Brain Functions 2007, 3(53), 13.
  • Heim S, Alter K. Prosodic pitch accents in language comprehension and production: ERP data and acoustic analyses. Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis 2006, 66(1), 55-68.
  • Dietrich S, Ackermann H, Alter K. How to disentangle lexical and prosodic information? Psychoacoustic studies on the processing of vocal interjections. Progress in Brain Research 2006, 156, 295-302.
  • Tervaniemi M, Szameitat A, Kruck S, Schröger E, Alter K, De Baene W, Friederici A. From air oscillations to music and speech: Functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence for fine-tuned neural networks in audition. Journal of Neuroscience 2006, 26(34), 8647-8652.
  • Sudhoff S, Lenertova D, Alter K. Zur Charakterisierung von Bezugskonstituenten der betonten Fokuspartikel ‚auch’ im Deutschen. Linguistische Arbeitsberichte 2005, 81, 159-180.
  • Heim S, Alter K, Ischebeck A, Amunts K, Eickhoff S, Mohlberg H, Zilles K, Von Cramon D, Friederici A. The role of the left Brodmann's areas 44 and 45 in reading words and pseudowords. Cognitive Brain Research 2005, 25(3), 982-993.
  • Pannekamp A, Toepel U, Alter K, Hahne A, Friederici AD. Prosody-driven sentence processing: An event-related brain potential study. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2005, 17(3), 407-421.
  • Isel F, Alter K, Friederici AD. Processing of syntactic and prosodic information in German particle verbs: Evidence from ERPs. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2005, 17(1), 154-164.
  • Magne C, Astesano C, Lacheret-Dujour A, Morel M, Alter K, Besson M. On-line procesing of 'pop-out' words in spoken French dialogues. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2005, 17(5), 740-756.
  • Knösche TR, Neuhaus C, Haueisen J, Maess B, Alter K, Friederici AD, Witte OW. Neural correlates for the perception of the phrase structure in music. Human Brain Mapping 2005, 24(4), 259-273.
  • Isel F, Alter K, Friederici A. Influence of prosodic information on the processing of split particles: ERP evidence from spoken German. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 2005, 17(1), 154-167.
  • Meyer M, Zysset S, Von Cramon D, Alter K. Distinct fMRI responses to laughter, speech, and sounds along the human peri-sylvian cortex. Cognitive Brain Research 2005, 24(2), 291-306.
  • Heinke W, Fiebach CJ, Schwarzbauer C, Meyer M, Olthoff D, Alter K. Sequential effects of propofol on functional brain activation induced by auditory language processing: an event-related functional magnetic resonance imaging study. British Journal of Anaesthesia 2004, 92(5), 641-650.
  • Jacobsen T, Schroeger E, Alter K. Pre-attentive vowel categorization from dynamic speech stimuli. Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc 2004, 41(4), 654-659.
  • Friedrich C, Kotz SA, Friederici AD, Alter K. Pitch modulates lexical identification in spoken word recognition: ERP and behavioral evidence. Cognitive Brain Research 2004, 20(2), 300-308.
  • Friederici AD, Alter K. Lateralization of auditory language functions – the dynamic dual pathway model. Brain and Language 2004, 89(2), 267-276.
  • Astesano C, Besson M, Alter K. Brain potentials during semantic and prosodic processing in French. Cognitive Brain Research 2004, 18(2), 172-184.
  • Meyer M, Steinhauer K, Alter K, Friederici AD, von Cramon DY. Brain activity varies with modulation of dynamic pitch variance in sentence melody. Brain & Language 2004, 89(2), 277-289.
  • Meyer M, Alter K, Friederici AD. Towards the cerebral substrates of sentence-level syntactic and prosodic processing. Journal of Neurolinguistics 2003, 16(4-5), 277-300.
  • Herrmann CS, Friederici AD, Hahne A, Alter K. The brain generates its own sentence melody: A Gestalt phenomenon in speech perception. Brain & Language 2003, 85(3), 396-401.
  • Lattner S, Maess B, Wang Y, Schauer M, Alter K, Friederici AD. The brain dissociates human and non-human voices preattentively and gestalt-like. Human Brain Mapping 2003, 20(1), 13-21.
  • Kotz SA, Meyer M, Alter K, Besson M, von Cramon DY, Friederici AD. On the lateralization of emotional prosody: An event-related functional MRI investigation. Brain and Language 2003, 86(3), 366-376.
  • Alter K, Rank E, Kotz SA, Toepel U, Besson M, Schirmer A, Friederici AD. Affective encoding in speech signal and ERPs. Journal of Speech and Communication 2003, 40(1-2), 61-70.
  • Alter K. Realisierung und Verarbeitung von Korrektur: Zum Zusammenhang von Intonation und Bedeutung. Linguistische Arbeitsberichte 2002, 79, 255-275.
  • Alter K, Mleinek I, Umbach C, Rohe T, Steube A. Kontrastprosodie in Sprachproduktion und –perzeption. Linguistische Arbeitsberichte 2002, 77, 59-81.
  • Meyer M, Alter K, Friederici AD, Lohmann G, von Cramon DY. Functional MRI reveals brain regions mediating slow prosodic manipulations of spoken sentences. Human Brain Mapping 2002, 17(2), 73-88.
  • Friedrich CK, Alter K, Kotz SA. An electrophysiological response to different pitch contours in words. NeuroReport 2002, 12(15), 3189-3191.
  • Schirmer A, Alter K, Kotz SA, Friederici AD. Lateralization of prosody during language production: A lesion study. Brain and Language 2001, 76(1), 1-17.
  • Alter K, Steinhauer K. When the brain meets prosody. Linguistische Arbeitsberichte 2000, 74, 9-24.
  • Steinhauer K, Alter K, Friederici AD. Brain potentials indicate immediate use of prosodic cues in natural speech processing. Nature Neuroscience 1999, 2(2), 191-196.

• Book Chapters

  • Alter K, Wildgruber D. Laughing Out Loud! Investigations on Different Types of Laughter. In: Pascal Belin and Sascha Fruehauf, ed. The Oxford Handbook of Voice Perception. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press, 2018, pp.495-511.
  • Alter K. Le rire comme element essential de la communication sociale. In: Courtet,C;Besson,M;Lavocat,F;Viala,A, ed. Mises en intrigues. Paris: CNRS Editions, 2016, pp.199-210.
  • Szameitat D, Wildgruber D, Alter K. Vocal expression of emotions in laughter. In: Eckart Altenmüller, Sabine Schmidt, and Elke Zimmermann, ed. The Evolution of Emotional Communication From Sounds in Nonhuman Mammals to Speech and Music in Man: From Sounds in Nonhuman Mammals to Speech and Music in Man. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013, pp.191-210.
  • Heim S, Alter K. Focus on focus: The brain’s electrophysiological response to focus particles and accents in German. In: Späth A, ed. Interface and Interface Conditions. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2007, pp.277-298.
  • Dietrich S, Ackermann H, Szameitat DP, Alter K. Psychoacoustic studies on the processing of vocal interjections: how to disentangle lexical and prosodic information?. In: S. Anders, G. Ende, M. Junghofer, J. Kissler, D. Wildgruber, ed. Understanding emotions. Netherlands: Elsevier, 2006, pp.295-302.
  • Otten G, Féry C, Alter K. Prosody in Speech Production and Perception: The Case of Right Node Raising in English. In: Steube, A, ed. Information Structure. accepted: de Gryuter, 2006, pp.accepted.
  • Alter K. Sentence segmentation: On the influence of prosodic boundaries and accents. In: Lacheret, A., Jacques, F, ed. Fonctions et moyens d'expression de la focalisation. Paris, France: Peeters Publishers, 2004, pp.115-136.
  • Hruska C, Alter K. Prosody in dialogues and single sentences: How prosody can influence sentence perception. In: Steube, A, ed. Information structure: Theoretical and empirical evidence. Berlin: de Gruyter, 2004, pp.211-226.
  • Toepel U, Alter K. On the independence of information structure processing from prosody. In: Steube A, ed. Information structure: Theoretical and empirical evidence. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004, pp.227-240.
  • Umbach C, Mleinek I, Lehmann Ch, Weskott T, Alter K, Steube A. Intonational patterns in Contrast and Concession. In: Steube, A, ed. Information Structure: Theoretical and Empirical Aspects. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004, pp.277-306.
  • Steube A, Alter K, Spaeth A. Information structure and modular grammar. In: Steube A, ed. Information structure: theoretical and empirical evidence. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, 2004, pp.15-40.
  • Alter K. Prosodie. In: Rickheit, G., Herrmann, T., Deutsch, W, ed. Psycholinguistics: An International Handbook. Berlin, Germany: Walter de Gruyter, 2003, pp.339-346.
  • Alter K. Suprasegmentale Merkmale und Prosodie in der Sprachproduktion. In: Müller, H.M, ed. Arbeitsbuch Linguistik. Paderborn: UTB-Ferdinand Schöningh, 2002, pp.148-169.
  • Alter K, Buchberger E, Matiasek J, Niklfeld G, Trost H. VIECTOS: The Vienna Concept-to-Speech System. In: Gibbon D, ed. Natural Language Processing and Speech Technology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996.
  • Alter K, Matiasek J, Niklfeld G. Modeling Prosody in a German Concept-to-Speech System. In: Gibbon D, ed. Natural Language Processing and Speech Technology. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter, 1996.

• Conference Proceedings (inc. Abstracts)

  • Post B, Alter K. Neural correlates of categorical linguistic and gradient paralinguistic intonation. In: 18th ICPhS 2015 International Conference on Phonetic Sciences. 2015, Glasgow: University of Glasgow.
  • Derzsi Z, Tarawneh G, Alter K, Read J. A stereoscopic look at frequency tagging: Is a single frequency enough?. In: 38th European Conference on Visual Perception (ECVP). 2015, Liverpool, UK: Sage Publications Ltd.
  • Metcalfe C, Grube M, Gabriel D, Dietrich S, Ackermann H, Cook V, Hanson A, Alter K. The processing of emotional utterances: Roles of prosodic and lexical information. In: Brain Talk: Discourse with and in the brain: Papers from the First Birgit Rausing Language Program Conference in Linguistics. 2009, Center for Languages and Literature, Lund University: Lund: Media-Tryck.
  • Szameitat DP, Darwin CJ, Szameitat AJ, Wildgruber D, Sterr A, Dietrich S, Alter K. Formant characteristics of human laughter. In: Proceedings of the Workshop ‘Phonetics of laughter’. 2007, Saarbruecken, Germany.
  • Toepel U, Alter K. Pragmatics and prosody in conflict: The closure Positive Shift (CPS) in information structural processing. In: Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience: 12th Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society. 2005, New York, USA: MIT Press.
  • Heim S, Alter K, Friederici A. A dual-route account for access to grammatical gender: Evidence from functional MRI. In: 2nd Vogt Brodmann Symposium - Convergence of Structure and Function. 2005, Julich, Germany: Anatomy and Embryology, Springer.
  • Augurzky P, Alter K, Pechmann T. The influence of prosody on reading - an ERP study on relative clause attachment. In: Proceedings of the Second CamLing Postgraduate Conference on Language Research. 2004, University of Cambridge, UK.
  • Alter K. Neurokognition der Sprachverarbeitung. In: Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Nürnberger Medizinische Gesellschaft. 2004.
  • Alter K, Astésano C, Besson M. Influence des modalités intonatives sur le traitement sémantique: une étude électrophysiologique. In: Orality and Gestures. Interactions et comportements multimodaux dans la communication. 2004, Aix-en-Provence, France: l' Harmattan.
  • Alter K, Junghanns U. Topic related Prosodic patterns in Russian. In: Current Approaches To Formal Slavic Linguistics: Contributions Of The Second European Conference On Formal Description Of Slavic Languages. 2003, Potsdam, Germany: Peter Lang Pub Inc.
  • Toepel U, Alter K. How mis-specified focus accents can distress our brain. In: International Conference on Phonetic Sciences. 2003, Barcelona, Spain.
  • Kruck S, Berti S, Hies T, Alter K. Auditory evoked potentials: Processing of syllables and level identical noise. In: Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society: 26th Annual International Neuropsychological Society Mid-Year Conference organized as a Joint Meeting with the Society for Neuropsychology (GNP). 2003, Berlin, Germany: Cambridge University Press.
  • Alter K, Mleinek I, Richter N. The relation between accentuation and phrasing in Russian. In: Formal Description of Slavic Languages III. 2002, Leipzig.
  • Toepel U, Alter K. Speech segmentation during auditory perception. In: Speech Prosody. 2002, Aix-en-Provence, France.
  • Kruck ST, Alter K. Segmentierung sprachlicher Information. In: Fortschritte der Akustik: Plenarvorträge und Fachbeiträge der 28. Deutschen Jahrestagung für Akustik (DAGA). 2002, Bochum, Germany: Oldenburg: DAGA.
  • Friedrich CK, Alter K, Kotz SA. Pitch contour guides spoken word recognition. In: Speech Prosody. 2002, Aix-en-Provence, France.
  • Alter K, Meyer M, Steinhauer K, Friederici AD, von Cramon DY. Brain responses related to prosodic information in natural speech: An eventrelated fMRI study. In: Linguistics on the way into to the third millenium. Part II: Language, Computer, and Society. 2002, Germersheim, Germany: Peter Lang.
  • Hruska C, Alter K, Steinhauer K, Steube A. Misleading dialogues: Human's brain reaction to prosodic information. In: Orality and Gestures. Interactions et comportements multimodaux dans la communication. 2001, Aix-en-Provence, France: l'Harmattan.
  • Lattner S, Maess B, Friederici AD, Alter K. Human auditory processing of pitch altered speech. In: VIIIth Conference on Nordic Prosody. 2001, Trondheim, Norway: Peter Lang.
  • Neubarth F, Alter K, Pirker H, Rieder E, Trost H. The Vienna prosodic speech corpus: Purpose, content and encoding. In: Proceedings: KONVENS 2000 (TU Ilmenau), Berlin: VDE Verlag. 2000.
  • Alter, K., Schirmer, A., Kotz, S.A. & Friederici, A.D. Prosodic phrasing and accentuation in speech production of patients with right hemisphere lesions. In: Proceedings: 6th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology. 1999, Budapest, Hungary.
  • Alter K, Rank E, Kotz SA, Pfeifer E, Besson M, Friederici AD. On the relations of semantic and acoustic properties of emotions. In: Proceedings: 14th International Congress of Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS). 1999, San Francisco, USA: Lingustics Department, University of California.
  • Alter, K., Matiasek, J., Steinhauer, K., Pirker, H. & Friederici, A.D. Exploiting Syntactic Dependencies for German Prosody: Evidence from Speech Production and Perception. In: In: B. Schröder, W. Lenders, W. Hess & T. Portele (Eds.), Computer Studies in Language and Speech, Frankfurt/Main: Peter Lang. 1998.
  • Alter, K., Steinhauer, K. & Friederici, A.D. De-accentuation: Linguistic Environments and Prosodic Realizations. In: Proceedings: 5th International Conference on Spoken Language Processing. 1998, Sydney, Australia.
  • Alter, K. & Pirker, H. On the specification of sentence initial f0-patterns in German. In: Proceedings: ESCA workshop "Intonation: Theory, models and applications. 1997, Athena, Greece.
  • Alter, K. Discovering time structure in German. In: Proceedings of Nordic Prosody VII. 1996, Joensuu, Finland.
  • Niklfeld, G. & Alter, K. Covering prosody in concept-to-speech via an extended two-level- phonology component. In: Computational Phonology in Speech Technology - Second Meeting of the ACL Special Interest Group in Computational Phonology. 1996, (University of California, Santa Cruz, Association for Computational Linguistics).

• Edited Book

  • Alter K, Horne M, Lindgren M, Roll M, von Koss Torkildsen J, ed. Brain Talk: Discourse with and in the Brain. Lund: Centre for Languages and Literature, Lund University, 2009.

• Editorial

  • Alter K. 'Emotion' 'The essence of Human communication - The processing of emotional information' Comment on: Bruck C, Kreifelts B, Wildgruber D. Emotional voice in context: a neurobiological model of multimodal affective information processing. Physics of Life Reviews 2011, 8(4), 406-407.

• Review

  • Yukhnovich EA, Alter K, Sedley W. What Do Mismatch Negativity (MMN) Responses Tell Us About Tinnitus?. JARO - Journal of the Association for Research in Otolaryngology 2025, 26, 33-47.

• Thesis

  • Kai Alter. Prosodie zwischen Sprachproduktion und Perzeption. 2002.
  • Kai Alter. Die franzoesischen Interrogative und Exklamative 'French interrogatives and exclamations' PhD dissertation. 1993.