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Seminar: “What is the language network? Moving through operationalisations and degrees of abstraction”
Advancements in studying language and the brain have led to important findings but also heated debates regarding the neurobiological basis of language. I will discuss three critical sets of problems with the way questions in our field are being asked and answered: Problems with defining ‘language’, problems with identifying the neurobiological basis of language, and problems with overlooking the goal-dependence of research. I will show that, counterintuitively, all positions in the current debate –from “the language network is localised”, “the language network does not exist”, to “language is widely distributed”–can be regarded as both correct and incorrect. This is because each one of these claims can only be evaluated in the context of the research goal, conceptualisation of language, specific operationalisations, and chosen degree of abstraction. I will conclude that we should use the wiggle room in defining language and identifying its neurobiological basis to our advantage. Adopting a ‘pluralist view’ would do justice to language as a multifaceted phenomenon, generating more nuanced answers that–thanks to, rather than despite the complexity–may prove to be more fruitful in the long run.
About Prof. Vitória Piai:
I am an associate professor, Principal Investigator at the Donders Centre for Cognition and junior Principal Investigator at Radboud University Medical Centre and Donders Centre for Medical Neuroscience.
My research programme focuses on the neurophysiological basis of language in healthy adults and in individuals with language impairment due to neurological damage. I examine this using an interdisciplinary approach, bridging across the domains of language, memory, and executive functioning. Electrophysiological methods in particular allow me to characterise neuronal computations required for language and to relate these computations to those employed by memory and cognitive control systems. These methods also allow me to study how these computations change following brain injury, providing a unique insight into how the brain reorganises after damage to support language function.
Round Table: “Beyond Cognitive Domains: Rethinking Language and the Structure of the Mind”
A Neuroscience–Philosophy Roundtable on the Epistemological and Ontological Foundations of Cognition
Participants: Vitória Piai, Andrea Rivadulla, Manolo Martínez, Antoni Rodríguez-Fornells, and Joanna Sierpowska.