What can be learnt on language by studying animals without language?

Language being unique to the human cognitive system, one could logically consider that it can only be studied in the only species that features one: humans. Yet, a number of ILCB/BLRI researchers use animals including rodents, pet dogs, macaques and baboons to address the question of the cognitive and cerebral bases of language.
Read more >>

The main goal is to closely examine several models of the anatomo-functional architecture of language in the brain (Friederici, Hagoort, Poeppel, Price) to determine if and how they are influenced by linguistic theories ((Bybee, Chomsky, Fillmore, Goldberg, Jackendoff, Kay…). This implies reviewing, understanding and synthesizing the different models and their implications. The ultimate goal is to reach a better understanding of how to bridge the gap between linguistics and neurolinguistics. The various expertise within the BLRI/ILCB are very well-suited to address these general issues.
Read more >>

• Conversational interactions as the primary frame of reference for studies on brain-language relationships
• New paradigms for investigating the neurophysiological and cognitive bases of conversational interactions
• Analytical tools for the characterization of between-individual coordination and information transfer in conversational interactions
  Read more >>

In this Transversal Questions we will develop new methods to tackle with the challenge of extracting and characterizing brain functional connectivity networks and their temporal evolution, in strict relation with  the  underlying  anatomy  and  the  performed  cognitive  tasks.  We  will  apply these new tools to the  analysis of specific datasets, in particular about cognitive experiments involving language analysis and production.
Read more >>