A5034533902- Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Categorization, perception, and language
- Multisensory perception and integration
- Language Development and Disorders
- Reading and Literacy Development
- Language and cultural evolution
- Language, Metaphor, and Cognition
- Topic Modeling
- Advanced Neuroimaging Techniques and Applications
- Child and Animal Learning Development
- Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Fractal and DNA sequence analysis
- Education and Critical Thinking Development
- Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Writing and Handwriting Education
- Neural dynamics and brain function
- Color perception and design
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
2021-2025
Harvard University
2021-2025
Institute of Cognitive and Brain Sciences
2023-2025
McGovern Institute for Brain Research
2021-2025
Bioscience (China)
2025
Harvard University Press
2025
Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language
2017
Language and music are two human-unique capacities whose relationship remains debated. Some have argued for overlap in processing mechanisms, especially structure processing. Such claims often concern the inferior frontal component of language system located within "Broca's area." However, others failed to find overlap. Using a robust individual-subject fMRI approach, we examined responses brain regions stimuli, probed musical abilities individuals with severe aphasia. Across 4 experiments,...
Abstract How do polyglots—individuals who speak five or more languages—process their languages, and what can this population tell us about the language system? Using fMRI, we identified network in each of 34 polyglots (including 16 hyperpolyglots with knowledge 10+ languages) examined its response to native language, non-native languages varying proficiency, unfamiliar languages. All conditions engaged all areas relative a control condition. Languages that participants rated as higher...
Abstract Language and music are two human-unique capacities whose relationship remains debated. Some have argued for overlap in processing mechanisms, especially structure processing. Such claims often concern the inferior frontal component of language system located within ‘Broca’s area’. However, others failed to find overlap. Using a robust individual-subject fMRI approach, we examined responses brain regions stimuli, probed musical abilities individuals with severe aphasia. Across four...
Abstract To understand the architecture of human language, it is critical to examine diverse languages; yet most cognitive neuroscience research has focused on a handful primarily Indo-European languages. Here, we report an investigation fronto-temporo-parietal language network across 45 languages and establish robustness cross-linguistic variation its topography key functional properties, including left-lateralization, strong integration among brain regions, selectivity for processing.
Abstract At the heart of language neuroscience lies a fundamental question: How does human brain process rich variety languages? Recent developments in Natural Language Processing, particularly multilingual neural network models, offer promising avenue to answer this question by providing theory-agnostic way representing linguistic content across languages. Our study leverages these advances ask how brains native speakers 21 languages respond stimuli, and what extent representations are...
What constitutes a language? Natural languages share features with other domains: from math, to music, gesture. However, the brain mechanisms that process linguistic input are highly specialized, showing little response diverse nonlinguistic tasks. Here, we examine constructed (conlangs) ask whether they draw on same neural as natural or instead pattern domains like math and programming languages. Using individual-subject fMRI analyses, show understanding conlangs recruits areas language...
Language comprehension relies on integrating the perceived utterance with prior expectations. Previous investigations of expectations about sentence structure (the structural prior) have found that comprehenders often interpret rare constructions nonliterally. However, this work has mostly relied analytic languages like English, where word order is main way to indicate syntactic relations in sentence. This raises possibility over not a universal part processing toolkit, but rather tool...
Abstract How do polyglots—individuals who speak five or more languages—process their languages, and what can this population tell us about the language system? Using fMRI, we identified network in each of 34 polyglots (including 16 hyperpolyglots with knowledge 10+ languages) examined its response to native language, non-native languages varying proficiency, unfamiliar languages. All conditions engaged all areas relative a control condition. Languages that participants rated as...
What constitutes a language? Natural languages share some features with other domains: from math, to music, gesture. However, the brain mechanisms that process linguistic input are highly specialized, showing little or no response diverse non-linguistic tasks. Here, we examine constructed (conlangs) ask whether they draw on same neural as natural languages, instead pattern domains like math and logic. Using individual-subject fMRI analyses, show understanding conlangs recruits areas language...
Words and the concepts they represent vary across languages. Here we ask if mother-tongue are altered by learning a second language. What happens when speakers of Tsimane’, language with few consensus color terms, learn Bolivian Spanish, more terms? Three possibilities arise: Concepts in Tsimane’ may remain unaffected, or be remapped, either terms taking on new meanings borrowing Bolivian-Spanish terms. We found that adult bilingual ( n = 30) remapped without importing into Tsimane’. All...
Abstract The bilingual experience may place special cognitive demands on speakers and has been argued to lead improvements in domain-general executive abilities, like control working memory. Such have for based both behavioral brain imaging evidence. However, the empirical landscape is complex ridden with controversy. Here we attempt shed light this question through an fMRI investigation of relatively large, homogeneous, carefully matched samples early balanced bilinguals (n = 55)...
Word processing initially occurs through letter-by-letter parsing at early stages of reading development. Here we investigated the role literacy in both linguistic and non-linguistic strings, as well consequences possible changes brought by acquisition reading. Illiterates matched with schooled literates on socio-demographic cognitive measures were presented a character search task. Overall, performed better than illiterates identifying constituents strings. showed similar performance for...
Abstract A standard assumption in the bilingual language processing literature is that ease of access a word determined by speaker’s overall proficiency language. Alternatively, it could be varies across semantic categories bilingual’s two languages. Here, we investigated lexical color terms Tsimane’–Spanish bilinguals. Given are generally more frequent Spanish than Tsimane’, participants may have better for words despite being proficient Tsimane’. Twenty-two bilinguals took part picture...