Language in the Mind and Brain

3-0-9 units · Undergraduate

Surveys the core mental abilities — and their neural substrates — that support language, and situates them within the broader landscape of human cognition. Topics explored include: how structured representations are extracted from language; the nature of abstract concepts and how they relate to words; the nature of the brain mechanisms that support language vs. other structured and/or meaningful inputs, like music, mathematical expressions, or pictures; the relationship between language and social cognition; how language is processed in individuals who speak multiple languages; how animal communication systems and artificial neural network language models differ from human language. Draws on evidence from diverse approaches and populations, focusing on cutting-edge research. Students taking graduate version complete additional assignments.