Language in Our Brain: The Origins of a Uniquely Human Capacity (The MIT Press)

A comprehensive account of the neurobiological basis of language, arguing that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and, more important, how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure (a white matter dorsal tract), connecting syntax-relevant brain regions, is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the “missing link” that explains humans' capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution. Intro -- Contents -- Foreword -- Preface -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- Language as a Uniquely Human Trait -- Language as a Specific Cognitive System -- Language as a Brain System -- I -- 1 Language Functions in the Brain: From Auditory Input to Sentence Comprehension -- 1.1 A Cognitive Model of Auditory Language Comprehension -- 1.2 Acoustic-Phonological Processes -- 1.3 From Word Form to Syntactic and Lexical-Semantic Information -- 1.4 Initial Phrase Structure Building -- 1.5 Syntactic Relations during Sentence Processing -- 1.6 Processing Semantic Relations -- 1.7 Thematic Role Assignment: Semantic and Syntactic Features -- 1.8 Processing Prosodic Information -- 1.9 Functional Neuroanatomy of Language Comprehension -- 2 Excursions -- 2.1 Language Comprehension and Production: A Common Knowledge Base of Language -- 2.2 Language Comprehension and Communication: Beyond the Core Language System -- II -- 3 The Structural Language Network -- 3.1 The Neuroanatomical Pathways of Language -- 3.2 Pathways in the Right Hemisphere and Cross-Hemispheric Pathways -- 3.3 The Neuroanatomical Pathway Model of Language: Syntactic and Semantic Networks -- 4 The Functional Language Network -- 4.1 The Neuroreceptorarchitectonic Basis of the Language Network -- 4.2 Functional Connectivity and Cortical Oscillations -- 4.3 The Neural Language Circuit -- III -- 5 The Brain's Critical Period for Language Acquisition -- 5.1 Neurophysiology of Second Language Learning -- 5.2 Critical and Sensitive Periods of Learning: Facts and Speculations -- 5.3 Universality of the Neural Language Network -- 6 Ontogeny of the Neural Language Network -- 6.1 Language in the First Three Years of Life -- 6.2 Language beyond Age 3 -- 6.3 Structural and Functional Connectivity during Development -- 6.4 The Ontogeny of the Language Network: A Model -- IV -- 7 Evolution of Language A landmark account of the neurobiological basis of language—arguing that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure connecting syntax-relevant brain regions is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the “missing link” that explains humans'capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution. "Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and, more important, how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure (a white matter dorsal tract), connecting syntax-relevant brain regions, is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the "missing link" that explains humans' capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution." -- Publisher's description