What are the brain bases of our ability to speak and understand language? Are some parts of the brain dedicated to language? What is it like to lose language? This course provides a state-of-the-art survey of the cognitive neuroscience of language, a rapidly developing multidisciplinary field in the intersection of Linguistics, Psycholinguistics and Neuroscience. Lectures cover all aspects of language processing in the healthy brain from early sensory perception to higher level semantic interpretation as well as a range of neurological and development language disorders, including aphasias, dyslexia and genetic language impairment. Functional neuroimaging techniques will be introduced.
- Regular attendance at lectures and recitations.
- Readings. There is no textbook. Instead, all readings are available on this website.
- Papers. You will write 2 short papers, one due before the midterm and the other after. Both will be critical evaluations of an original research article, to be made available on this website.
- Questions. Before every recitation, you should email the TA a question based on that week's lecture or readings. Questions are due every Sun at 3:30pm (email to: jon.brennan@nyu.edu)
- A midterm and a final exam. Both exams will be a mixture of multiple choice and short answer questions. the final exam covers primarily, but not exclusively, post-midterm material. There will be no make-up exams. You receive a zero grade for an exam missed without a written, valid excuse acceptable to the instructor (e.g., medical reasons).
- Papers (2): 15%
- Midterm: 35%
- Final: 35%
- Participation (in class and recitation, including sending a question to the TA before each section): 15%
4-Sep INTRO. GOALS AND QUESTIONS
6-Sep GOALS AND QUESTIONS CONT.
11-Sep BRAIN BASICS
13-Sep HISTORY: BROCA AND WERNICKE
18-Sep FUNCTIONAL NEUROIMAGING AND ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
20-Sep SPEECH PERCEPTION: DISORDERS, MCGURK
25-Sep SOUNDS AND CATEGORIES
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O'Grady et al. 1997. Contemporary linguistics. Ch 3., pp. 63-73.
- Phillips, C., Pellathy, T., Marantz, A., Yellin, E., Wexler, K., Poeppel, D., McGinnis, M. and Roberts, TPL (2000). Auditory Cortex Accesses Phonological Categories: An MEG Mismatch Study. J. Cogn. Neurosci. 12: 1038-1055.
27-Sep READING
2-Oct DYSLEXIA
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Scientific American: 11/01/1996 Dyslexia
4-Oct LEXICAL ACCESS: APHASIA
9-Oct LEXICAL ACCESS: ELECTROMAGNETISM
9-Oct LEXICAL ACCESS: ELECTROMAGNETISM (cont.)
16-Oct REVIEW
18-Oct MIDTERM
23-Oct MORPHOLOGY
25-Oct THE PAST TENSE DEBATE
30-Oct SPECIFIC LANGUAGE IMPAIRMENT
1-Nov SYNTAX, NEUROIMAGING
6-Nov SYNTAX, ELECTROPHYSIOLOGY
8-Nov SYNTAX, APHASIA
13-Nov SEMANTIC PROCESSING: THE N400
15-Nov SEMANTIC PROCESSING CONT.
- Hagoort, P., Hald, L., Bastiaansen, M., Petersson, K.M. (2004) Integration of word meaning and world knowledge in language comprehension. Science, 304, 438-41.
- Pylkkänen, L. & McElree, B. (2007). An MEG Study of Silent Meaning. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 19, 1905-1921 [pdf].
20-Nov LANGUAGE AND GENES (GARY MARCUS GUEST LECTURE)
22-Nov THANKSGIVING
27-Nov WILLIAMS SYNDROME
29-Nov WILLIAMS SYNDROME, CONT.
4-Dec SIGN LANGUAGE
6-Dec REVIEW
11-Dec FINAL
