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Neurolinguistics

A section of Brain Sciences (ISSN 2076-3425).

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Neurolinguistics is the study of how the brain perceives, processes, and produces language. We welcome submissions presenting original research, metanalyses, and comprehensive reviews from researchers who are pursuing answers to question such as: What about our brains makes human language possible? Why is our communication system so elaborate? In what ways is our communication system similar to and/or different from that of other animals? Does language use the same kind of neural computation as other cognitive systems (i.e., music or mathematics)? Where and how are words stored in our brain? How do we retrieve a word when we need it? Why is it sometimes difficult (or even impossible) to retrieve that word? How do people who speak more than one language switch between them, and what cognitive mechanisms prevent the languages from interfering with one another? In people who learn two (or more) languages from birth, how are their brains different from the brains of people who speak only one language? Are our left hemispheres really dedicated to language? If a person loses the ability to talk or to read because of a stroke (or other brain injury), will that person learn to talk again, and how well? What kinds of therapy are known to help the recovery of language following brain injury, and what new kinds of language therapy look promising in supporting this? Do people who read languages written from left to right process it in the same way as people who read languages written from right to left? Do people who read a language that is written using non-alphabetic symbols instead of an alphabet process language differently? How do the brains of people with dyslexia compare to those in people who have no reading difficulties, and if there are differences, what are they? What about in people who have difficulty speaking, such as those who stutter?

In short, neurolinguistics is the study of neural underpinnings and mechanisms that support our ability to perceive, produce, and understand words and sentences, to learn our first, second, and subsequent languages, and whose damage can result in disorders of speech, language, and reading.