Chao Prize Distinguished Lectures in Humanities: Windows into the Language Ready Brain

Abstract

In the course of evolution homo sapiens has been equipped with a brain that enables communication through natural language. This complex language faculty has been cobbled together out of systems for processing sound, sequences and symbols. I will discuss the multitude of brain networks supporting our language skills. I will show the dynamics of language processing, and forms of neural plasticity to adapt to requirements of different languages. Finally, I will argue that for language and communication interaction with other cognitive systems is required.

About the speaker

Prof. Peter HAGOORT is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the Founding Director of the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging. He is Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience at the Radboud University Nijmegen. His research interests relate to the human language faculty and how it is instantiated in the brain. He is an elected member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Academia Europaea, and the US National Academy of Sciences.