Language, mind and brain

Angela D. Friederici (), Noam Chomsky, Robert C. Berwick, Andrea Moro and Johan J. Bolhuis
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Angela D. Friederici: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Noam Chomsky: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Robert C. Berwick: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Andrea Moro: University School for Advanced Studies IUSS - Pavia
Johan J. Bolhuis: Utrecht University

Nature Human Behaviour, 2017, vol. 1, issue 10, 713-722

Abstract: Abstract Language serves as a cornerstone of human cognition. However, our knowledge about its neural basis is still a matter of debate, partly because ‘language’ is often ill-defined. Rather than equating language with ‘speech’ or ‘communication’, we propose that language is best described as a biologically determined computational cognitive mechanism that yields an unbounded array of hierarchically structured expressions. The results of recent brain imaging studies are consistent with this view of language as an autonomous cognitive mechanism, leading to a view of its neural organization, whereby language involves dynamic interactions of syntactic and semantic aspects represented in neural networks that connect the inferior frontal and superior temporal cortices functionally and structurally.

Date: 2017
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DOI: 10.1038/s41562-017-0184-4

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