Research Catalog
Language in our brain : the origins of a uniquely human capacity
- Title
- Language in our brain : the origins of a uniquely human capacity / Angela D. Friederici ; foreword by Noam Chomsky.
- Author
- Friederici, Angela D.
- Publication
- Cambridge, Massachusetts : The MIT Press, [2017]
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| Status | Format | Access | Call Number | Item Location |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Not available - Please for assistance. | Text | Request in advance | P165 .F64 2017 | Off-site |
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Details
- Description
- xii, 284 pages : illustrations (chiefly color); 24 cm
- Summary
- "Language makes us human. It is an intrinsic part of us, although we seldom think about it. Language is also an extremely complex entity with subcomponents responsible for its phonological, syntactic, and semantic aspects. In this landmark work, Angela Friederici offers a comprehensive account of these subcomponents and how they are integrated. Tracing the neurobiological basis of language across brain regions in humans and other primate species, she argues that species-specific brain differences may be at the root of the human capacity for language. Friederici shows which brain regions support the different language processes and, more important, how these brain regions are connected structurally and functionally to make language processes that take place in milliseconds possible. She finds that one particular brain structure (a white matter dorsal tract), connecting syntax-relevant brain regions, is present only in the mature human brain and only weakly present in other primate brains. Is this the “missing link” that explains humans’ capacity for language? Friederici describes the basic language functions and their brain basis; the language networks connecting different language-related brain regions; the brain basis of language acquisition during early childhood and when learning a second language, proposing a neurocognitive model of the ontogeny of language; and the evolution of language and underlying neural constraints. She finds that it is the information exchange between the relevant brain regions, supported by the white matter tract, that is the crucial factor in both language development and evolution." -- Publisher's description
- Subject
- Genre/Form
- Language.
- Bibliography (note)
- Includes bibliographical references (pages 241-280) and index.
- Contents
- Introduction -- Language functions in the brain : from auditory input to sentence comprehension -- Excursions -- The structural language network -- The functional language network -- The brain's critical period for language acquisition -- Ontogeny of the neural language network -- Evolution of language -- The neural basis of language.
- ISBN
- 9780262036924
- 0262036924
- LCCN
- 2017014254
- 99976596857
- OCLC
- ocn978511722
- 978511722
- SCSB-9004843
- Owning Institutions
- Columbia University Libraries