A podcast about the scientific study of language and the brain. Neuroscientist Stephen Wilson talks with leading and up-and-coming researchers about their work and ideas. This podcast is geared to an audience of scientists who are working in the field of language neuroscience, from students to postdocs to faculty.
In this episode, I talk with Masud Husain, Professor of Neurology and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Oxford, about his recent editorial ‘A mountain of small things’. Husain website Husain M. A mountain of small things. Brain 2024; 147: 739. [ doi ]
In this episode, I talk with Maaike Vandermosten, Associate Professor in the Department of Neurosciences at KU Leuven, about the neural basis of developmental dyslexia, and neuroplasticity in recovery from aphasia. Vandermosten website Vanderauwera J, Wouters J, Vandermosten M, Ghesquière P. Early dynamics of white matter deficits in children developing dyslexia. Dev Cogn Neurosci 2017; 27: 69-77. [ doi ] Beelen C, Vanderauwera J, Wouters J, Vandermosten M, Ghesquière P. Atypical gray matter in ...
In this episode, I talk with Dorothy Bishop, Emeritus Professor of Developmental Neuropsychology at the University of Oxford, about her work on developmental langauge disorder and its neural basis. Bishop website Bishop DVM. Comprehension in developmental language disorders. Dev Med Child Neurol. 1979;21:225-38. [ doi ] Bishop DVM, Snowling MJ, Thompson PA, Greenhalgh T, CATALISE consortium. CATALISE: A multinational and multidisciplinary Delphi consensus study: Identifying language impairments ...
In this episode, I talk with Rob Cavanaugh, Research Data Analyst at the Observational Health Data Sciences and Informatics Center at Northeastern University, about his dissertation ‘Determinants of multilevel discourse outcomes in anomia treatment for aphasia’. Cavanaugh website Cavanaugh, R. Determinants of multilevel discourse outcomes in anomia treatment for aphasia. Doctoral dissertation, University of Pittsburgh. [ dissertation ]...
In the episode, I talk with Jean-Rémi King, Research scientist and team leader at Meta AI, and Associate Researcher at CNRS, École Normale Supérieure, about three recent papers from his lab on deep learning algorithms, natural language processing, and the brain. King website Millet J, Caucheteux C, Orhan P, Boubenec Y, Gramfort A, Dunbar E, Pallier C, King J-R. Toward a realistic model of speech processing in the brain with self-supervised learning. In Advances in Neural Information Processing S...
In this episode, I talk with Laura Gwilliams, soon-to-be Assistant Professor of Psychology, Neuroscience, and Data Science at Stanford University, about her recent paper ‘Neural dynamics of phoneme sequences reveal position-invariant code for content and order’. Gwilliams lab website Gwilliams L, King JR, Marantz A, Poeppel D. Neural dynamics of phoneme sequences reveal position-invariant code for content and order. Nat Commun 2022; 13: 6606. [ doi ]...
In this episode, I talk with Alexander Huth, Assistant Professor of Neuroscience and Computer Science at the University of Texas, Austin, about his work using functional imaging and advanced computational methods to model how the brain processes language and represents meaning. Huth lab website Huth AG, Nishimoto S, Vu AT, Gallant JL. A continuous semantic space describes the representation of thousands of object and action categories across the human brain. Neuron 2012; 76: 1210-24. [ doi ] Hut...
In this episode, I talk with Liina Pylkkänen, Professor of Linguistics and Psychology at NYU, about her research program, and in particular her recent paper ‘Disentangling semantic composition and semantic association in the left temporal lobe’. Pylkkänen lab website Li J, Pylkkänen L. Disentangling semantic composition and semantic association in the left temporal lobe. J Neurosci 2021; 41: 6526-38. [ doi ]...
In this episode, I talk with Eddie Chang, Professor of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco, about his recent paper ‘Speech computations of the human superior temporal gyrus’. Chang lab website Bhaya-Grossman I, Chang EF. Speech computations of the human superior temporal gyrus. Annu Rev Psychol 2022; 73: 79-102. [ doi | pdf ] Chang EF, Rieger JW, Johnson K, Berger MS, Barbaro NM, Knight RT. Categorical speech representation in human superior temporal gyrus. Nat Ne...
In this episode, I talk with Olivia Leow, who experienced an awake craniotomy for resection of a brain tumor surrounded by language areas in her left posterior temporal lobe. Vanderbilt Brain Cancer Patient Assistance Fund, established by Olivia Leow Diachek E, Morgan VL, Wilson SM. Adaptive language mapping paradigms for presurgical language mapping. AJNR Am J Neuroradiol 2022; in press. [ pdf ] Wilson SM, Yen M, Eriksson DK. An adaptive semantic matching paradigm for reliable and valid languag...
In this episode, I talk with Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor and Emeritus Professor of Linguistics at MIT and Laureate Professor of Linguistics at the University of Arizona. After starting with a discussion of the early development of Chomsky’s key ideas, our conversation is centered on the relationship between generative linguistics and the neuroscience of language. Grodzinsky Y, Finkel L. The neurology of empty categories: Aphasics’ failure to detect ungrammaticality. J Cogn Neurosci 1998; 1...
In this episode, I talk with Fred Dick, Professor of Auditory Cognitive Neuroscience in the Department of Psychological Sciences at Birkbeck, University of London, about his work, with a focus on his recent paper ‘Extensive tonotopic mapping across auditory cortex is recapitulated by spectrally directed attention and systematically related to cortical myeloarchitecture’. Dick F, Bates E, Wulfeck B, Utman JA, Dronkers N, Gernsbacher MA. Language deficits, localization, and grammar: evidence for a...
In this episode, I talk with Keith Josephs, Professor of Neurology at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, about his work on the anatomy and neuropathology of progressive speech and language disorders. Josephs KA, Duffy JR, Strand EA, Whitwell JL, Layton KF, Parisi JE, et al. Clinicopathological and imaging correlates of progressive aphasia and apraxia of speech. Brain 2006; 129: 1385-98. [ doi ] Josephs KA, Hodges JR, Snowden JS, Mackenzie IR, Neumann M, Mann DM, et al. Neuropathological ba...
In this episode, I talk with Cathy Price, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London, about her pioneering work on functional neuroimaging of the language network, whether there are really such things as “language regions”, degeneracy, predicting and explaining language outcomes after stroke, and more. Price C, Wise R, Ramsay S, Friston K, Howard D, Patterson K, Frackowiak R. Regional response differences within the...
In this episode, I talk with Elissa Newport, Professor of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine at Georgetown University Medical Center, about her work on the neural and cognitive underpinnings of language development, including statistical learning, language after perinatal stroke, lateralization, plasticity, the critical period, and more. Saffran JR, Aslin RN, Newport EL. Statistical learning by 8-month-old infants. Science 1996; 274: 1926-8. [ doi ] Newport EL, Landau B, Seydell-Greenwald A, ...
In this episode, I talk with Cory Shain, postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at MIT, about his recent fMRI study of working memory demand in naturalistic language comprehension. Shain C, Blank IA, Fedorenko E, Gibson E, Schuler W. Robust effects of working memory demand during naturalistic language comprehension in language-selective cortex. bioRxiv 2021; 2021.09.18.460917. [ doi ] Cory Shain’s website EvLab TedLab...
In this episode, I talk with Rodrigo Braga, Assistant Professor of Neurology at Northwestern University, about his recent paper on identifying the language network from functional connectivity analyses of resting state data. Braga RM, DiNicola LM, Becker HC, Buckner RL. Situating the left-lateralized language network in the broader organization of multiple specialized large-scale distributed networks. J Neurophysiol 2020; 124: 1415-48. [ doi ] Braga lab Buckner lab...
In this episode, I talk with Ina Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of South Australia, about neurotypology, predictive coding, and dorsal and ventral streams. Bornkessel-Schlesewsky lab website Bornkessel I, Zysset S, Friederici AD, Von Cramon DY, Schlesewsky M. Who did what to whom? The neural basis of argument hierarchies during language comprehension. NeuroImage 2005; 26: 221-33. [ doi ] Bornkessel-Schlesewsky I, Schlesewsky M. Reconciling time, spa...
In this episode, I talk with David Moses and Jessie Liu about their recent NEJM paper ‘Neuroprosthesis for decoding speech in a paralyzed person with anarthria’, in which they decoded intended utterances from the brain of an individual with anarthria using an electrode array implanted of sensorimotor cortex and machine learning. Moses DA, Metzger SL, Liu JR, et al. Neuroprosthesis for decoding speech in a paralyzed person with anarthria. N Eng J Med 2021; 385: 217-27. [ doi ] New York Times arti...
In this episode, I talk with Roy Hamilton, Associate Professor of Neurology at the University of Pennsylvania, about his work using transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (TDCS), and in particular the application of these neuromodulatory techniques to enhance recovery from aphasia. Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation Penn Brain Science, Translation, Innovation, and Modulation Center Hamilton RH, Pascual-Leone A. Cortical plasticity associa...
Stephen talks with Willem “Pim” Levelt, Director Emeritus of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and author of “A history of psycholinguistics: The pre-Chomskyan era”, about the early history of the neuroscience of language.
Stephen talks with Pascale Tremblay, Professor of Rehabilitation Sciences at Université Laval, about how she co-founded the Society for the Neurobiology of Language, her paper "Broca and Wernicke are dead, or moving past the classic model of language neurobiology", and her work on the language tracts of the brain. https://langneurosci.org/podcast/ep10
Stephen is joined by Maya Henry, Andrew DeMarco, and Sarah Schneck to discuss some of our favorite presentations from the Clinical Aphasiology Conference 2021. https://langneurosci.org/podcast/ep9
Stephen talks with Julius Fridriksson, Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders at the University of South Carolina, about aphasia treatment and its neural substrates.
Stephen talks with Saloni Krishnan, Lecturer in Psychology at Royal Holloway, University of London, about her work, in particular her recent paper 'Functional organization for verb generation in children with developmental language disorder'.
Stephen talks with Karen Emmorey, Professor of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences at San Diego State University, about sign language and the brain.
Stephen talks with Andrea Gajardo-Vidal and Diego Lorca-Puls about their recent paper ‘Damage to Broca’s area does not contribute to long-term speech production outcome after stroke’.
Stephen talks about neural oscillations and neural entrainment with Jonas Obleser, Professor of Psychology at University of Lübeck
Stephen talks with Eddie Chang, Professor and Chair of Neurological Surgery at the University of California, San Francisco.
Stephen talks with Sophie Scott, CBE, Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience at University College London.
