Títol: "Mapping language in the brain: a conflicting picture. A brief overview of language in the brain" a càrrec de Dominika Slušná (UPF)

Data: dijous 23 de maig del 2019

Hora: 12.00 h

Lloc: Sala 52.735 - 2a planta edifici 52. Roc Boronat - Campus del Poblenou - UPF

Resum. Since the early 20th century, decades of research on language in the brain have managed to yield consistent patterns of language processing, and yet failed to sufficiently describe the neural basis of language. Broca’s and Wernicke’s studies on focal brain injuries have pointed to the Perisylvian cortex as being the language locus. Since then, decades of neuroimaging studies draw quite a similar picture. Although the classical Broca-Wernicke-Geschwind model have since been revised and adjusted, whenever we produce or comprehend language the Perisylvian regions are consistently engaged. It has become clear, however, that no component of language recruits a single focal area as if reflecting a mosaic of functions. Rather, what might seem as a distinct functional component activates a distributed and functionally integrated network. Despite the role of Perisylvian cortex in language processing, current neuroimaging methods cannot conclude that its regions are solely specialized for language. In fact, recent studies have shown several of these regions to be equally recruited in nonlinguistic processing. Similarly, language seems to share neural resources across other cognitive domains. Studies on memory, among others, have pointed to an expanded language network. The fact that functionally distinct cognitive domains seem not to be neutrally modular, but rather share neural resources should leads us to reconsider the nature of those cognitive domains per se.