Pro Event Calendar
The most caudal part of the left inferior frontal gyrus in the human brain – better known as Broca\’s area – is probably one of the most highly regarded and studied cortical regions. It became well known during the last century when it was incorrectly referred to as the \”expressive language center\” of the brain. However, meanwhile it is widely accepted that Broca\’s area subserves a multitude of cognitive, sensory and motor functions. Some of them are related to language while others are not. Much less is known about the contralateral region in the right hemisphere – dubbed as \”Broca\’s homologue\”. There does almost no explicit research exist that has so far thoroughly and explicitely looked in the functional neuroanatomy of this brain region even though brain imaging studies during the last two decades have occasionally reported its involvement in language and cognitive-motor mechanisms. Interestingly, there seem to be neuroanatomical pecularities that make Broca\’s homologue a special case in the human brain compared to the brain of great apes (which does not to the same extent hold for Broca\’s area in the left hemisphere).
The talk will give an overview on what we know about the functional role and neuroanatomical architecture of Broca\’s homologue. Is there a rightward asymmetry for specific neuronal measurements in the human brain? How is Broca\’s homologe connected to a) other ipsilateral perisylvian areas b) subcortical nuclei, namely the basal ganglia, and c) the controlateral frontal operculum? What might have been the role of Broca\’s homologue for the evolution of motor and vocal control? To what extent might higher cognition be supported by Broca\’s homologue? What do we know about the changes this area had undergone during human brain development?
In this talk I aim for setting up scientific questions for an interdisciplinary research programme for the second NCCR period.
Abstract Current work in quantitative historical linguistics frequently employs phylogenetic models originally designed for use in computational biology. While these models have ample potential to shed new light on the processes that underlie language change, the state of the art in evolutionary linguistics relies on simplistic representations of linguistic features and at times overly restrictive […]
Research on the effects of bilingualism on the structure of the brain has so far yielded variable patterns. Although it cannot be disputed that learning and using additional languages restructures the brain, the reported effects vary considerably, including both increases and reductions in grey matter volume and white matter diffusivity. This presentation reviews the available evidence and compares it to patterns from other domains of skill acquisition, culminating in the Dynamic Restructuring Model, a theory which synthesises the available evidence from the perspective of experience-based neuroplasticity. New corroborating evidence is also presented from healthy young and older bilinguals, and the presentation concludes with the implications of these effects for the ageing brain.
In the last two decades there has been an upsurge in research into the propensity for animals to combine calls together into larger meaningful structures, not least given the striking parallels some of these examples have with human linguistic combinations. Despite growing interest, the study of animal call combinations is complicated by a lack of systematic methods. In this workshop we will highlight recent methodological developments and provide a step-by-step guide to the objective investigation of animal call combinations from collecting data in the field to quantifying non-random call associations, capturing acoustic variation and finally assessing meaning attribution.
Abstract: Causal inference is hard, and everyone knows it. It is less recognized that descriptive and comparative scholarship also rely upon causal inference. How data are sampled and curated influences how we should process the data, in order to accurately describe or compare the people, times, and places of interest. I\’ll present some examples to illustrate the problems that ignoring causal structure can create, along with some solutions.