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Neuroscience of Language

By Prof. Friedemann Pulvermüller Spring 2010

Multidisciplinary lecture series and seminar

Overview:

Brian mechanisms are the ultimate substrate of linguistic processes


and communicative use of language is the ultimate manifestation of
the brain’s most intriguing capacity. Therefore, it is important to
consider the relationship between language and the brain at a
theoretical level, taking into account what is known about this
connection from cognitive neuroscience research. The course will
introduce to this field on the basis of principles of neuronal function
and brain-theoretical functional concepts. Questions addressing the
brain basis of phonolgical, lexical and semantic processing will be
covered in the context of recent neuroimaging resarch using MEG,
EEG, fMRI and TMS. A focus will be on possible brain mechanisms
underlying syntactic computations and representations.

The sessions will be structured into a lecture part and a part where
students review and discuss recent papers reporting research
results and their relevance to questions in the cognitive
neuroscience of language. Towards the end of the course, the state
of the field will be considered and an attempt will be made to define
research projects for future research.

Specific intended learning outcomes are the following:

- Basic knowledge about brain function, neuroscientific principles


and concepts in brain theory
- Knowledge about possible brain mechanisms related to different
stages of language learning
- Knowledge about cortical processes related to acoustic,
phonological and lexical processing
- Knowledge about the brain basis of semantic meaning
- Knowledge about temporal aspects of linguistic information
processing in the brain
- Basic knowledge about brain mechanisms that can process
information about sequences
- Knowledge about the neurophysiological basis of syntactic
processing
- Basic knowledge about neuronal learning rules and relationship
between neuronal connections and rule knowledge
- Being able to discuss key questions in the cognitive neuroscience
of language
NEUROSCIENCE OF LANGUAGE (LECTURE SERIES) 2
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, RCEAL
F. PULVERMÜLLER SPRING 2010

Dates and topics:

Time: Tuesdays, 2-4 pm, RCEAL, Lecture Room G-R-04 (S-R14)

Lecture 1: 27 April WORDS

Learning words, sounds and their features, brain mechanisms of


lexical processes, neural network simulations of the underlying
processes, MEG, EEG and fMRI experiments about cortical activation
spreading in word processing

Suggested reading: Pulvermüller, F. (2001). Brain reflections of


words and their meaning. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5(12), 517-
524.

Lecture 2: 4 May
MEANING

Referential semantics in the brain, is there a meaning centre in the


brain or are all meanings equally distributed?, category-specificity in
the processing of words and sentences with different meanings,
MEG, EEG and fMRI evidence on processing words referring to
objects and actions, brain indexes of processing concrete and
abstract sentences

Suggested readings: Pulvermüller, F. (2005). Brain mechanisms


linking language and action. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6(7),
576-582. Boulenger, V., Hauk, O., & Pulvermüller, F. (2009).
Grasping ideas with the motor system: Semantic somatotopy in
idiom comprehension. Cereb Cortex, 19(8), 1905-1914.

Lecture 3: 11 May
SOUNDS

Brain basis of phoneme and phonetic feature processing, laterality


of language – how can it be explained?, cortical processing of
natural (nonlinguistic) meaningful sounds, is the motor system
important for perceiving speech sounds and for recognising words?

Suggested readings: D'Ausilio, A., Pulvermüller, F., Salmas, P.,


Bufalari, I., Begliomini, C., & Fadiga, L. (2009). The motor
somatotopy of speech perception. Curr Biol, 19(5), 381-385.
Pulvermüller, F., Huss, M., Kherif, F., Moscoso del Prado Martin, F.,
Hauk, O., & Shtyrov, Y. (2006). Motor cortex maps articulatory
features of speech sounds. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, USA, 103(20), 7865-7870.
NEUROSCIENCE OF LANGUAGE (LECTURE SERIES) 3
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, RCEAL
F. PULVERMÜLLER SPRING 2010

Lecture 4: 25 May
SENTENCES:

Brain mechanisms for processing sequential information, cortical


neurophysiology of syntax, abstract automata and their relationship
to concrete brain structure and function, are there rules in the
brain?

Suggested reading: Pulvermüller, F. (2010). Brain embodiment of


syntax and grammar: Discrete combinatorial mechanisms spelt out
in neuronal circuits. Brain and Language, 112(3), 167-179.

Lecture 5: 1 June

TIME

When do we understand? – Can the brain tell?, the rapid access to


different kinds of linguistic information, which type of
psycholinguistic information is accessed at which point in time?, is
language processing (lexical access, syntactic/semantic analysis)
serial or parallel?

Suggested reading: Pulvermüller, F., Shtyrov, Y., & Hauk, O.


(2009). Understanding in an instant: neurophysiological evidence
for mechanistic language circuits in the brain. Brain and Language,
110(2), 81-94.

Lecture 6: 15 June

LANGUAGE THERAPY

Can neuroscience help finding better methods to treat patients with


organic language deficits?, aphasia therapy: standards and new
directions, brain activation changes after stroke and over language
therapy.

Suggested reading: Pulvermüller, F., & Berthier, M. L. (2008).


Aphasia therapy on a neuroscience basis. Aphasiology, 22(6), 563-
599.
NEUROSCIENCE OF LANGUAGE (LECTURE SERIES) 4
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, RCEAL
F. PULVERMÜLLER SPRING 2010

Recommended literature (Asterisks indicate essential readings)

Elman, J. L., Bates, L., Johnson, M., Karmiloff-Smith, A., Parisi, D.,
& Plunkett, K. (1996). Rethinking innateness. A connectionist
perspective on development. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
Friederici, A. D. (2002). Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence
processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(2), 78-84.
*Fuster, J. M. (2003). Cortex and mind: Unifying cognition. Oxford:
Oxford University Press.
Näätänen, R., Tervaniemi, M., Sussman, E., Paavilainen, P., &
Winkler, I. (2001). 'Primitive intelligence' in the auditory cortex.
Trends in Neurosciences, 24(5), 283-288.
*Näätänen, R. (2001). The perception of speech sounds by the
human brain as reflected by the mismatch negativity (MMN) and its
magnetic equivalent (MMNm). Psychophysiology, 38(1), 1-21.
Pulvermüller, F. (2003). The neuroscience of language. Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press.
Pulvermüller, F. (2005). Brain mechanisms linking language and
action. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6(7), 576-582.
*Pulvermüller, F., & Fadiga, L. (2010). Active perception:
Sensorimotor circuits as a cortical basis for language. Nature
Reviews Neuroscience, 11(5), 351-360.
Rizzolatti, G., & Craighero, L. (2004). The Mirror-Neuron System.
Annual Reviews in Neuroscience, 27, 169-192.
Toga & J. C. Mazziotta (Eds.), Brain mapping: The methods (pp.
259-276). San Diego: Academic Press.
NEUROSCIENCE OF LANGUAGE (LECTURE SERIES) 5
UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE, RCEAL
F. PULVERMÜLLER SPRING 2010

Articles to be discussed in student presentations:

Lecture 1: Saur, D., Kreher, B. W., Schnell, S., Kummerer,


D., Kellmeyer, P., Vry, M. S., Umarova, R., Musso,
M., Glauche, V., Abel, S., Huber, W., Rijntjes, M.,
Hennig, J., & Weiller, C. (2008). Ventral and
dorsal pathways for language. Proc Natl Acad Sci
U S A, 105(46), 18035-18040.

Lecture 2: Martin, A., Wiggs, C. L., Ungerleider, L. G., &


Haxby, J. V. (1996). Neural correlates of
category-specific knowledge. Nature, 379, 649-
652.

Lecture 3: Lotto, A. J., Hickok, G. S., & Holt, L. L. (2009).


Reflections on mirror neurons and speech
perception. Trends Cogn Sci, 13(3), 110-114.

Lecture 4: Jeff Hanna: Presentation of an ongoing project on


MEG indexes of syntactic processing: Differences
between first and second language in speakers
with different language proficiencies (paper in
preparation).

Lecture 5: Friederici, A. D. (2009). Pathways to language:


fiber tracts in the human brain. Trends Cogn Sci,
13(4), 175-181.

Lecture 6: Martin, P. I., Naeser, M. A., Ho, M., Treglia, E.,


Kaplan, E., Baker, E. H., & Pascual-Leone, A.
(2009). Research with transcranial magnetic
stimulation in the treatment of aphasia. Curr
Neurol Neurosci Rep, 9(6), 451-458.

Prof. Friedemann Pulvermüller, MRC-CBU


tel.: +44 (0) 1223 355294 ext 770
email: friedemann.pulvermuller@mrc-cbu.cam.ac.uk

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