The Neuroscience of Language Lab (NeLLab) brings together three complementary research programs in the cognitive neuroscience of language to integrate linguistics and neurobiology in an effort to uncover the neural bases of language comprehension and production. How does the brain mediate the most critical aspects of our communication system? Which properties of the mind/brain facilitate the seemingly effortless processing of language, ranging from the analysis of speech sounds to the construction of meaning?

The constitution of our highly interactive and interdisciplinary research group creates the opportunity to generate novel insights on foundational questions, stimulated by the synergy of the team of labs. The central, shared question is: How do neural mechanisms subserve the computations necessary for rapid construction of the linguistic representations when we understand language?

Our principal tool is MEG (supplemented by EEG and MRI), a cutting- edge noninvasive brain monitoring method that provides the millisecond temporal resolution combined with the necessary spatial resolution to address these critical questions.  The research programs of the Lab leaders cover language comprehension from the basic level of sound – Poeppel – through words – Marantz – to the construction and interpretation of sentences – Pylkkänen.  The team has been among the pioneers both on the theoretical and experimental levels, ranging from linguistic models to innovative single-trial MEG analyses to the exploration of naturalistic experimental designs.

Facilities
NEW YORK	ABU DHABI