BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:16956-9fa3857917429cf579f6bd1c41cbafbe@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260715T084022Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20211112T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20211112T103000 SUMMARY:Evelina Fedorenko (MIT) - The Language System in the Human Brain DESCRIPTION:\n \;\n\nThe goal of Dr. Fedorenko's research program is to understand the representations and computations that enable us to sh are complex thoughts with one another via language\, and their neural im plementation. A decade ago\, she developed a robust new approach to the study of language in the brain based on identifying language-responsive cortex functionally in individual participants. Originally developed for fMRI\, we have since extended this approach to other modalities\, like intracranial recordings. Using this functional-localization approach\, s he identified and characterized a set of frontal and temporal brain area s that i) support language comprehension and production (spoken and writ ten)\; ii) are robustly separable from the lower-level perceptual (e.g.\ , speech processing) and motor (e.g.\, articulation) brain areas\; iii) are spatially and functionally similar across diverse languages (>\;40 languages from 11 language families)\; and iv) form a functionally inte grated system with substantial redundancy across different components. I n this talk\, Dr. Fedorenko will highlight a few discoveries from the la st decade and argue that the primary goal of language is efficient infor mation transfer rather than enabling complex thought\, as has been argue d in one prominent philosophical and linguistic tradition (e.g.\, Wittge nstein\, 1921\; Berwick &\; Chomsky\, 2016). I will use two kinds of evidence to make this argument. First\, she will examine the relationshi p between language and other aspects of cognition\, including social cog nitive abilities and complex thought/reasoning. She will show that the l anguage brain regions are highly selective for language over diverse non -linguistic processes while also showing a deep and intriguing link with a system that supports social cognition. And second\, she will examine different properties of language and argue that language both has a) pro perties that make it well-suited for communication\, and b) properties t hat make it not suitable for complex thought. Both of these lines of evi dence support the communicative function of language\, and suggest that the idea that language evolved to allow for more complexity in thought i s unlikely.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/evelina -fedorenko-mit/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

 

Th e goal of Dr. Fedorenko's research program is to understand the represen tations and computations that enable us to share complex thoughts with o ne another via language, and their neural implementation. A decade ago, she developed a robust new approach to the study of language in the brai n based on identifying language-responsive cortex functionally in indivi dual participants. Originally developed for fMRI, we have since extended this approach to other modalities, like intracranial recordings. Using this functional-localization approach, she identified and characterized a set of frontal and temporal brain areas that i) support language compr ehension and production (spoken and written); ii) are robustly separable from the lower-level perceptual (e.g., speech processing) and motor (e. g., articulation) brain areas; iii) are spatially and functionally simil ar across diverse languages (>40 languages from 11 language families) ; and iv) form a functionally integrated system with substantial redunda ncy across different components. In this talk, Dr. Fedorenko will highli ght a few discoveries from the last decade and argue that the primary go al of language is efficient information transfer rather than enabling co mplex thought, as has been argued in one prominent philosophical and lin guistic tradition (e.g., Wittgenstein, 1921; Berwick & Chomsky, 2016 ). I will use two kinds of evidence to make this argument. First, she wi ll examine the relationship between language and other aspects of cognit ion, including social cognitive abilities and complex thought/reasoning. She will show that the language brain regions are highly selective for language over diverse non-linguistic processes while also showing a deep and intriguing link with a system that supports social cognition. And s econd, she will examine different properties of language and argue that language both has a) properties that make it well-suited for communicati on, and b) properties that make it not suitable for complex thought. Bot h of these lines of evidence support the communicative function of langu age, and suggest that the idea that language evolved to allow for more c omplexity in thought is unlikely.

For more details: https://events.la.psu .edu/event/evelina-fedorenko-mit/

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