Abstract
The study of language is shared by a number of fields, including linguistics, psychology, and neurobiology. While the methods employed by these domains may overlap, they differ in the focus of their scientific inquiry, and the unique perspective of each may inform investigation within the others. We conceptualize this relationship in the context of David Marr’s information processing theory, with neurobiology as the implementational level of language, and discuss the history of the neurobiology of language from early localizationist models to the present day.
Decades of electrophysiological and anatomical studies of the macaque monkey support the existence of dual streams for the processing of auditory information. More recent neuroimaging studies suggest that these streams are also present in humans, subserving speech perception and language comprehension. The development of high resolution brain imaging methods and brain stimulation has advanced our ability to study, in vivo, the structures and processes underlying the language network. For those linguists interested in studying language with consideration of the system that implements it, theories and concepts may now be meaningfully informed by neurobiology.
References
Agatonovic-Kustrin, S. and R. Beresford. 2000. “Basic concepts of artificial neural network (ANN) modeling and its application in pharmaceutical research”. J Pharm Biomed Anal 22. 717–727.
Arbib, M. and M. Bota. 2003. “Language evolution: Neural homologies and neuroinformatics”. Neural Netw 16. 1237–1260.
Azuma, M. and H. Suzuki. 1984. “Properties and distribution of auditory neurons in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of the alert monkey”. Brain Res 298. 343–346.
Binder, J.R., E. Liebenthal, E.T. Possing, D.A. Medler and B.D. Ward. 2004. “Neural correlates of sensory and decision processes in auditory object identification”. Nat Neurosci 7. 295–301.
Binder, J.R., S.M. Rao, T.A. Hammeke, F.Z. Yetkin, A. Jesmanowicz, P.A. Bandettini, E.C. Wong, L.D. Estkowski, M.D. Goldstein, V.M. Haughton et al. 1994. “Functional magnetic resonance imaging of human auditory cortex”. Ann Neurol 35. 662–672.
Bizley, J.K. and Y.E. Cohen. 2013. “The what, where and how of auditory-object perception”. Nat Rev Neurosci 14. 693–707.
Bornkessel-Schlesewsky, I., M. Schlesewsky, S.L. Small and J.P. Rauschecker. 2015. “Neurobiological roots of language in primate audition: Common computational properties”. Trends Cogn Sci 19. 142–150.
Broca, P.P. 1861. “Nouvelle observation d’aphémie produite par une lésion de la moitié postérieure des deuxième et troisième circonvolutions frontales”. Bulletin de la Société Anatomique de Paris 36. 398–407.
Buccino, G., F. Binkofski, G.R. Fink, L. Fadiga, L. Fogassi, V. Gallese, R.J. Seitz, K. Zilles, G. Rizzolatti, and H.J. Freund. 2001. “Action observation activates premotor and parietal areas in a somatotopic manner: An fMRI study”. Eur J Neurosci 13. 400–404.
Buchweitz, A., R.A. Mason, L.M. Tomitch and M.A. Just. 2009. “Brain activation for reading and listening comprehension: An fMRI study of modality effects and individual differences in language comprehension”. Psychol Neurosci 2. 111–123.
Bullmore, E. and O. Sporns. 2009. “Complex brain networks: graph theoretical analysis of structural and functional systems”. Nat Rev Neurosci 10. 186–198.
Copeland, J. 1993. Artificial intelligence: A philosophical introduction. Hoboken: Wiley-Blackwell.
di Pellegrino, G., L. Fadiga, L. Fogassi, V. Gallese and G. Rizzolatti. 1992. “Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study”. Exp Brain Res 91. 176–180.
Dick, A.S., S. Goldin-Meadow, A. Solodkin and S.L. Small. 2012. “Gesture in the developing brain”. Dev Sci 15. 165–180.
Dick, A.S., A. Solodkin and S.L. Small. 2010. “Neural development of networks for audiovisual speech comprehension”. Brain Lang 114. 101–114.
Doupe, A.J. and P.K. Kuhl. 1999. “Birdsong and human speech: Common themes and mechanisms”. Annu Rev Neurosci 22. 567–631.
Déjerine, J.J. and A. Déjerine-Klumpke. 1895. Anatomie des centres nerveux. Paris: Rueff.
Ferrari, P.F., V. Gallese, G. Rizzolatti and L. Fogassi. 2003. “Mirror neurons responding to the observation of ingestive and communicative mouth actions in the monkey ventral premotor cortex”. Eur J Neurosci 17. 1703–1714.
Freud, S. 1891. Zur Auffassung der Aphasie. Eine kritische Studie. Leipzig/Vienna: Deuticke.
Gall, F.J. 1825. Sur les fonctions du cerveau et sur celles de chacune de ses parties (vol. 6). Paris: J.B. Bailliére.
Gallese, V., L. Fadiga, L. Fogassi and G. Rizzolatti. 1996. “Action recognition in the premotor cortex”. Brain 119 (pt. 2). 593–609.
Geschwind, N. 1970. “The organization of language and the brain”. Science 170. 940–944.
Goni, J., M.P. van den Heuvel, A. Avena-Koenigsberger, N. Velez de Mendizabal, R. F. Betzel, A. Griffa, P. Hagmann, B. Corominas-Murtra, J.P. Thiran and O. Sporns. 2014. “Resting-brain functional connectivity predicted by analytic measures of network communication”. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 111. 833–838.
Grashey, H. 1885. “Über Aphasie and ihre Beziehungen zur Wahrnehmung“. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Nervenkrankheiten 16. 654–688.
Hasson, U., J.I. Skipper, H.C. Nusbaum and S.L. Small. 2007. “Abstract coding of audiovisual speech: Beyond sensory representation”. Neuron 56. 1116–1126.
Iversen, S.D. and M. Mishkin. 1970. “Perseverative interference in monkeys following selective lesions of the inferior prefrontal convexity”. Exp Brain Res 11. 376–386.
Kelly, C., L.Q. Uddin, Z. Shehzad, D.S. Margulies, F.X. Castellanos, M.P. Milham and M. Petrides. 2010. “Broca’s region: Linking human brain functional connectivity data and non-human primate tracing anatomy studies”. Eur J Neurosci 32. 383–398.
Kiparsky, P. 1993. “Paninian linguistics”. In: Asher, R. and J. Simpson (eds.), The encyclopedia of language and linguistics. Oxford: Pergamon Press. 2918–2923.
Levelt, W.J. 2001. “Spoken word production: A theory of lexical access”. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 98. 13464–13471.
Lichtheim, L. 1885. “On aphasia”. Brain 7. 433–484.
Marr, D. 1982. Vision: A computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information. San Francisco, CA: W.H. Freeman.
McGurk, H. and J. MacDonald. 1976. “Hearing lips and seeing voices”. Nature 264. 746–748.
Orban, G.A., D. Van Essen and W. Vanduffel. 2004. “Comparative mapping of higher visual areas in monkeys and humans”. Trends Cogn Sci 8. 315–324.
Panini and S.C. Vasu. 1891. The Ashtadhyayi of Panini. (Translated into English by Srisa Chandra Vasu.) Benares: Sindhu Charan Bose, at the Panini Office.
Price, C.J. 2012. A review and synthesis of the first 20 years of PET and fMRI studies of heard speech, spoken language and reading”. Neuroimage 62. 816–847.
Rauschecker, J.P. 2007. “Cortical processing of auditory space: Pathways and plasticity”. In: Mast, F. and L. Jäncke (eds.), Spatial processing in navigation, imagery and perception. New York: Springer. 389–410.
Rauschecker, J. P. and S.K. Scott. 2009. “Maps and streams in the auditory cortex: Nonhuman primates illuminate human speech processing”. Nat Neurosci 12. 718–724.
Rauschecker, J.P. and B. Tian. 2000. “Mechanisms and streams for processing of ‘what’ and ‘where’ in auditory cortex”. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 97. 11800–11806.
Romanski, L.M., B. Tian, J. Fritz, M. Mishkin, P.S. Goldman-Rakic and J.P. Rauschecker. 1999. “Dual streams of auditory afferents target multiple domains in the primate prefrontal cortex”. Nat Neurosci 2. 1131–1136.
Rozzi, S., P.F. Ferrari, L. Bonini, G. Rizzolatti and L. Fogassi. 2008. “Functional organization of inferior parietal lobule convexity in the macaque monkey: Electrophysiological characterization of motor, sensory and mirror responses and their correlation with cytoarchitectonic areas”. Eur J Neurosci 28. 1569–1588.
Shipp, S., M. Blanton and S. Zeki. 1998. “A visuo-somatomotor pathway through superior parietal cortex in the macaque monkey: Cortical connections of areas V6 and V6A”. Eur J Neurosci 10. 3171–3193.
Skipper, J.I., H.C. Nusbaum and S.L. Small. 2005. “Listening to talking faces: Motor cortical activation during speech perception”. Neuroimage 25. 76–89.
Skipper, J.I., H.C. Nusbaum and S.L. Small. 2006. “Lending a helping hand to hearing: Another motor theory of speech perception”. In: Arbib, M.A. (ed.), Action to language via the mirror neuron system. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 250–285.
Small, S.L., D.C. Noll, C.A. Perfetti, P. Hlustik, R. Wellington and W. Schneider. 1996. “Localizing the lexicon for reading aloud:replication of a PET study using fMRI”. Neuroreport 7. 961–965.
Sporns, O., G. Tononi and R. Kotter. 2005. “The human connectome: A structural description of the human brain”. PLoS Comput Biol 1. e42.
Tchernichovski, O. and G. Marcus. 2014. “Vocal learning beyond imitation: Mechanisms of adaptive vocal development in songbirds and human infants”. Curr Opin Neurobiol 28. 42–47.
Tooby, J. and L. Cosmides. 2005. Evolutionary psychology: Conceptual foundations. Evolutionary psychology handbook. New York: Wiley.
Ungerleider, L.G., and M. Mishkin. 1982. “Two cortical visual systems”. In: Ingle, D.J., M.A. Goodale and R.J.W. Mansfield (eds.), Analysis of visual behavior. Cambridge, CA: The MIT Press. 549–586.
Wernicke, C. 1874. Der Aphasische Symptomenkomplex. Breslau: Cohn & Weigert.
License
All papers published by the Yearbook of the Poznań Linguistic Meeting are published in an Open Access model using the CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Creative Commons licence.