ILCB

Adaptation to a bilingual input and variability in early language acquisition
2026-02-06 10:30 - 12:00 (Europe/Paris) | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Prof. Laura Bosch from Barcelona University

Abstract:
Infants and children growing up in bilingual/multilingual environments should no longer be considered as exceptions to the norm, even for those living in monolingual societies. But bilingualism is a broad construct, covering a diversity of dual language exposure contexts, modulated by differential properties of socio-educational environments and language typologies. Adequately addressing the heterogeneous nature of bilingual language acquisition remains challenging. Research developed in the last twenty-five years, reflects important changes in the type of questions that have been addressed: from an initial focus on early language differentiation issues, to more recent studies focusing on the identification of adaptive mechanisms, understanding variability in acquisition, and getting more nuanced views on the processes that lead to building separate but interconnected language systems from a dual language input. In this talk, I will first summarize studies based on infants simultaneously exposed to close language pairs (e.g., Spanish and Catalan), and I will then contrast these studies with data obtained from populations exposed to more distant languages. Language proximity stands out as a factor likely to modulate acquisition in such domains as phonological, lexical, and morphosyntactic acquisition. The talk will successively cover two separate but interconnected areas: the early building of native language phonetic/phonological categories, and word-learning strategies in dual vocabulary building. This narrow focus might contribute to identify research questions that remain open for future studies on early bilingualism.

Workshop organized by the ILCB docs&post-docs
2026-03-20 | FRUMAM, 3 place Victor Hugo, Marseille, 13001, France
The annual workshop organized by ILCB docs&postdocs will take place on March 20 in Marseille, St Charles, and is open to all researchers and students within the ILCB community. The main objective of the workshop is to foster interactions and exchanges among students and researchers from the different ILCB labs, and we therefore strongly encourage all ILCB members to attend.
The program will include short talks by PhD students, postdocs, and researchers, a keynote lecture by our ILCB Iméra fellow Philippe Albouy, and a poster session. New this year: all registered participants may present a poster (upon notification, for organizational purposes).
Reminder: all PhD students and postdocs within the ILCB perimeter are warmly invited to join the Docs&Postdocs group. For further information, please contact elin.runnqvist@univ-amu.fr and nadera.bureau@univ-amu.fr.

Cerveau, intelligence artificielle et science ouverte
2026-04-02 17:30 - 19:30 | IMéRA
Philippe Albouy, titulaire de la chaire ILCB/Iméra – Langage, communication et cerveau

Link : https://www.imera.fr/agenda/cerveau-ia-science-ouverte/

Seminars
2026-04-10 10:00 - 12:00 | Amphi 7 Université, 29 avenue Robert Schuman, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Usha Goswami :Centre for Neuroscience in Education, University of Cambridge
Dyslexia, Rhythm, Language and the Developing Brain
Recent insights from auditory neuroscience provide a new perspective on how the brain encodes speech. Using these recent insights, I will provide an overview of key factors underpinning individual differences in children’s development of language and phonology, providing a context for exploring atypical reading development (dyslexia). Children with dyslexia are relatively insensitive to acoustic cues related to speech rhythm patterns. This lack of rhythmic sensitivity is related to the atypical neural encoding of rhythm patterns in speech by the brain. I will describe our recent data from infants as well as children, demonstrating developmental continuity in the key neural variables.

Martin Pickering : University of Edinburgh
An augmented psychology of language

8th Annual Meeting of the Society for the Cognitive Science of Culture
2026-04-22 - 2026-04-24 | Théâtre Antoine Vitez, 29 Av. Robert Schuman, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
8thAnnual Meeting of the Society for the Cognitive Science of Culture. The Society aims to promote research into the role of culture on cognition, with a particular focus on extending research beyond WEIRD populations.
The meeting will take place from 22nd to 24th April 2026 at Aix-Marseille University in Aix-en-Provence, France.
This year, we are honoured to welcome four outstanding keynote speakers.
Prof. Usha Goswami, University of Cambridge
Brain Beats: Cognitive Science and Cognitive Neuroscience of Rhythmic Language
Prof. Helmut Leder, University of Vienna
Beauty as sensory pleasure?
Prof. Patrick Lemaire, Aix-Marseille University
Mathematics across cultures: What can we learn about the role of culture on cognition?
Dr. Daniele Schön, Aix-Marseille University
Music as window into language processing and rehabilitation
We invite abstract submissions for 20-minute talks and posters from the full spectrum of research interested in the relationship between cognition and culture in its many forms across domains including psychology, neuroscience, behaviour, linguistics and literature, visual art and music.
Please visit the submission website for further information: https://culturalcogsci.org/AnnualMeeting.html
Submission Deadline: January 31st 2026
Early bird registration: Until February 28th 2026
The SCSC 2026 Organizing Committee

dedicated to “Quantitative imaging and its applications.”
2026-05-04 | Amphithéâtre de CERIMED, 27 Boulevard Jean Moulin, Marseille, 13005

Integrating Neural Noise and Neuroinflammatory Hypotheses: Exploring the Comorbidity of Dyslexia, Depression, and Stress
2026-05-22 12:00 - 13:00
Fumiko Hoeft
Recent advancements in our understanding of dyslexia have highlighted the complex interplay between neurobiological mechanisms and comorbid conditions such as depression and stress. The Neural Noise Hypothesis (NNH) of dyslexia proposes that dysregulated neural activity, characterized by excessive glutamatergic neurotransmission, leads to the disrupted auditory and visual processing that typifies this learning disorder. Concurrently, emerging research suggests that these neural irregularities may overlap with pathways involved in stress and depression, pointing to a shared neurobiological foundation. This presentation explores the synthesis of the NNH with recent findings on the role of neuroinflammation in dyslexia and its comorbidities. Building on our foundational work (Hancock, Pugh, and Hoeft, TiCS. 2017), and integrating recent insights into stress and mood disorders from neuroimaging studies, we propose a model where dyslexia-related neural noise may exacerbate susceptibility to depression through neuroinflammatory pathways. This model is supported by recent research by Lasnick and Hoeft (Front Hum Neurosci. 2023), which provides compelling evidence of altered neural connectivity in regions critical for emotional and stress regulation in individuals with dyslexia. Furthermore, this talk will delve into how environmental stressors and individual resilience factors contribute to the variability in dyslexia presentations, particularly focusing on how these elements interact with neurobiological mechanisms to influence the severity and range of comorbid symptoms. By bridging gaps between disparate research domains, we aim to foster a more comprehensive understanding of dyslexia that acknowledges its potential as a multisystem disorder with significant neurobiological and psychosocial dimensions. This integrated approach sets the stage for discussing potential interventions that target these overlapping pathways, offering hope for more effective treatments that address both the core symptoms of dyslexia and its common comorbidities.

The evolution and social functions of human nonverbal vocalisations
2026-06-05 12:00 - 13:00 | B011 LPL, 5 avenue Pasteur, Aix-en-Provence, 13100, France
Dr. Katarzyna PISANSKI

Spectacle
2026-09-16 18:00 - 20:00, 2026-09-17 18:00 | Friche la Belle de Mai — GMEM, 41 Rue Jobin, Marseille, 13003
