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What can we make of theories of embodiment and the role of the human mirror neuron system?
In recent years, work surrounding theories of embodiment and the role of the putative mirror neuron system (MNS) in humans has gained considerable attention. If humans have developed a network of neurons that fire in response to other beings’ actions, as has been shown in macaques, this system could have vast implications for all kinds of cognitive processes unique to humans, such as language, learning, empathy and communication in general. The goal of tapping into and understanding such a system is a fascinating yet challenging one. One form of embodiment -- embodied linguistics -- suggests that the way we process linguistic information is linked to our physical experience of the concept ...
The Neurocognition of Language Production
Over the last decades neuroscience has passed beyond mere “phrenology” and “erpology” and has become an important tool for investigating the spatial, temporal and functional brain dynamics underlying human behavior. In this Special Issue we would like to give a broad overview of recent significant contributions that neuroscientific research has provided to one of the most practiced psychomotor skills unique to humans, namely language production. Physiological studies in language production have not been as extensive compared to many other areas of human cognition and have just currently begun to generate important evidence for uncovering the cognitive mechanisms behind our ability to...
A Myriad of Tongues
A sweeping exploration of the relationship between the language we speak and our perception of such fundamentals of experience as time, space, color, and smells. We tend to assume that all languages categorize ideas and objects similarly, reflecting our common human experience. But this isn’t the case. When we look closely, we find that many basic concepts are not universal, and that speakers of different languages literally see and think about the world differently. Caleb Everett takes readers around the globe, explaining what linguistic diversity tells us about human culture, overturning conventional wisdom along the way. For instance, though it may seem that everybody refers to time in ...
A world of sound
Everything vibrates and makes sound, from the smallest living cells in the human body to the biggest skyscrapers. Sound itself is a travelling wave of vibrating particles but, amazingly, our brains can understand sounds – gathering information and meaning from these vibrations. Sounds are the building blocks for language, and culture, and can be a source of both pleasure and pain. In the modern world sound is also fantastic tool for medicine, industry and monitoring the natural environment. But it can also be polluting and bad for our health. For many animals, sound is essential for survival, enabling them to communicate, hunt and navigate their world. Hearing loss affects around 5% of the...
Syntax, the brain, and linguistic theory: a critical reassessment
Syntax refers both to the structure of sentences and the underlying combinatorial capacity to generate this structure. For some time, neurolinguistic research on syntax was heavily influenced by theoretical linguistic approaches, which characterize in detail the nature of syntactic representations. A rough consensus has been that the primary region supporting syntax is Broca’s area, and that syntactic deficits in aphasia exist primarily due to damage or degeneration of this region, commonly occurring in Broca’s aphasia and nonfluent/agrammatic PPA. With respect to temporal dynamics of syntactic processing, neurophysiological research on syntax focused on specific event-related potentials...
The Adaptive Value of Languages: Non-Linguistic Causes of Language Diversity
The goal of this eBook is to shed light on the non-linguistic causes of language diversity, and in particular, to explore the possibility that some aspects of the structure of languages may result from an adaptation to the natural and/or human-made environment. Traditionally, language diversity has been claimed to result from random, internally-motivated changes in language structure. However, ongoing research suggests instead that different factors that are external to language can promote language change and ultimately account for aspects of language diversity, specifically features of the social and physical environments. The contributions in this eBook discuss whether some aspects of languages are an adaptation to ecological, social, or even technological niches.
The psychology behind sports performance
Have you ever watched sport on TV and wondered how athletes like LeBron James, Serena Williams, Lionel Messi, Simone Biles, and Virat Kohli are able to perform so well in front of thousands of people? Just the thought of it is enough to make most people throw up and pass out! For over 100 years, sport psychologists (scientists interested in how the brain influences sport performance) have been studying athletes and teams in order to understand more about the psychology behind successful sport performance. These scientific studies have uncovered some fascinating insights regarding what it takes to become an elite athlete and perform at the highest level. In this collection, we will reveal som...
Cerebro y ficción
Con la proliferación de textos divulgativos vinculados a las neurociencias, hay montones de "neuromitos" dando vueltas en la sociedad, como el que dice que solo usamos el 10 % de nuestro cerebro o el que sugiere que una persona es más racional o más creativa por ser más de un hemisferio que del otro. En principio no serían un problema, pero las dificultades surgen cuando se malinterpretan o descontextualizan hallazgos científicos y se toman decisiones supuestamente vinculadas a ellos en ámbitos clínicos y educativos. En Cerebro y ficción. Mitos y verdades en la neurociencia, las investigadoras Valeria Abusamra, Analía Arévalo y Montserrat Armele analizan algunos de estos mitos en una trama interdisciplinaria y geolocalizada en el Cono Sur, apoyándose en la literatura científica más actual y con una prosa amena. Se trata de un texto que sirve tanto para saciar la curiosidad como para discutir el impacto que los datos neurocientíficos bien interpretados podrían tener sobre el planteo de políticas públicas y de aspectos ligados a la educación.
