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Your brain on language - Many Minds

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Your brain on language

Description

Using language is a complex business. Let's say you want to understand a sentence. You first need to parse a sequence of sounds—if the sentence is spoken—or images—if it's signed or written. You need to figure out the meanings of the individual words and then you need to put those meanings together to form a bigger whole. Of course, you also need to think about the larger context—the conversation, the person you're talking to, the kind of situation you're in. So how does the brain do all of this? Is there just one neural system that deals with language or several? Do different parts of the brain care about different aspects of language? And, more basically: What scientific tools and techniques should we be using to try to figure this all out? My guest today is <a href= "https://bcs.mit.edu/directory/evelina-fedorenko">Dr. Ev Fedorenko</a>. Ev is a cognitive neuroscientist at MIT, where she and her <a href="https://www.evlab.mit.edu/">research group</a> study how the brains supports language and complex thought. Ev and her colleagues recently wrote <a href= "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anna-Ivanova-18/publication/379785120_The_language_network_as_a_natural_kind_within_the_broader_landscape_of_the_human_brain/links/6659820b0b0d28457475d5a5/The-language-network-as-a-natural-kind-within-the-broader-landscape-of-the-human-brain.pdf"> a detailed overview</a> of their work on the language network—the specialized system in our brain that underlies our ability to use language. This network has some features you might have expected, and—as we’ll see—other features you probably didn't. Here, Ev and I talk about the history of our effort to understand the neurobiology of language. We lay out the current understanding of the language network, and its relationship to the brain areas historically associated with language abilities—especially Broca's area and Wernicke's area. We talk about whether the language network can be partitioned according to the subfields of linguistics, such as syntax and semantics. We discuss the power and limitations of fMRI, and the advantages of the single-subject analyses that Ev and her lab primarily use. We consider how the language network interfaces with other major neural networks—for instance, the theory of mind network and the so-called default network. And we discuss what this all tells us about the longstanding controversial claim that language is primarily for thinking rather than communicating. Along the way, Ev and I tou

Publication Date

2024-12-12T05:32:00+00:00

Status

completed

Website

https://manyminds.libsyn.com/your-brain-on-language

Length

92:55

File

/podcasts/Many Minds/1733981520-4950.mp3

Size

127.62 MB

Bitrate

187-CBR

Channels

Queries: 25 | Cache Hits: 0 | Load Time: 0.0375 | 2 MB

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