Headshot of Michel Belyk
Courtesy of the poet

Dr. Michel Belyk is a senior lecturer in psychology at Edge Hill University (Lancashire, United Kingdom). He studies the human voice and expressions of speech, song, and emotion. In his research, Belyk uses a comparative approach to understand the neural adaptations and genetic mechanisms that make humans able to speak and to control the voice in ways unique to the species. He also studies speech disorders and neurodiversity among people with disordered speech patterns. Belyk has published scientific research articles in journals such as Human Brain Mapping, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, and Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences.