Paula Rubio-Fernández has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant to test and develop a new theory of common ground in conversation. Her project aims to understand how people build and manage shared understanding through real-time multimodal interaction.
Researchers introduce fleeting memory into modern neural language models, showing improved learning efficiency and grammatical generalization when training data are limited. The findings suggest that memory constraints support language learning in contemporary neural networks.
Falk Huettig's new book delves into the effects of reading on memory, attention, language processing, and reasoning, as well as its impact on face recognition. The author argues that literacy continues to develop beyond decoding skills, training higher-level cognitive functions.
Researchers found that Italian and Dutch adults increased use of two-handed representational gestures when teaching children, suggesting a shared communicative strategy for young learners. This finding supports theories of folk pedagogy and highlights the importance of multimodal scaffolding in human cultural transmission.
Researchers Judith Holler and Anna K. Kuhlen argue that conversation is not a linear exchange of words, but rather a jointly managed activity in which meaning emerges through coordination. Visual signals like gestures and facial expressions play a crucial role in composing and comprehending meaning.
A study by Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics found that genetic variations account for approximately 30% of the variation in experiencing aesthetic chills. The research also identified shared genetic influences across music, poetry, and visual art, linked to broader personality traits like openness to experience.
A new study found that carrying rare archaic versions of human-specific DNA changes, such as the SSH2 variant, does not necessarily lead to noticeable consequences. However, some variants like TKTL1 showed no extreme differences in brain structure or cognitive function despite previous dramatic effects in lab-based experiments.
A new paradigm for language science emerges, highlighting the importance of multimodality, social interaction, and cultural evolution. The study reveals that language is not a fixed code, but a living, adaptive system shaped by its use in context.
A new framework proposes that human language evolved through the interaction of biology and culture, uniting discoveries across disciplines to explain complex communication. The study highlights the importance of a biocultural approach in understanding language origins.
A team of researchers investigated whether blind individuals gesture like sighted people when talking about the world. The study found that visual experience influences how conceptual knowledge is expressed through gesture, with concepts relying on seeing things from a distance being harder to represent without vision. This research ha...
Researchers studied 18 individuals with non-degron SETBP1 variants, revealing a distinct disorder with wide range of cognitive, speech and motor impairments. Functional experiments showed that many variants disrupt DNA-binding, transcription and neuronal differentiation capacity.
A new study argues that adolescents and young adults are the main drivers of language change, rather than young children. The research finds little evidence that early learning mistakes spread through communities and highlights the role of everyday language use among older speakers.
Researchers found that children's active exploration of their surroundings and use of multiple senses help them learn language quickly. This approach differs from AI systems' passive processing of data, highlighting the need for rethinking AI design.
Researchers found that listeners use gestures to predict upcoming words, facilitating language processing and indicating the multimodal nature of human communication. This study highlights the importance of co-speech hand gestures in understanding artificial agents like robots or virtual avatars.
A genetic twin study found that music enjoyment is partly heritable, with distinct genetic pathways influencing different aspects of music pleasure. The researchers discovered that DNA differences contribute to various facets of music enjoyment, such as emotion regulation and musical ability.
Researchers investigated how people build grammatical structure in Dutch using brain activity measurements, finding that Dutch speakers use a predictive strategy to build sentences, unlike English speakers who adopt a 'wait-and-see' approach.
Researchers propose a new 'mind-tracking' model of communication, integrating social micro-processes to understand non-literal language. Everyday examples like choosing articles or demonstratives demonstrate the interdependence between language and social cognition.
A large-scale study found that genetic variants associated with dyslexia were linked to differences in brain areas involved in motor coordination, vision, and language. The research also discovered associations between dyslexia-related genes and white matter density in the internal capsule, which is linked to various cognitive traits.
Demonstratives like 'this' and 'that' use across languages to direct listener's attention, linking language to social cognition. The study found that speakers of different languages use demonstratives in ways that reflect their shared human capacity for joint attention.
Researchers have found that speakers of Makhuwa, a Bantu language, process focused information in the same way as speakers of other languages. The study used EEG to measure brain activity when participants heard sentences with focused or non-focused words. The results show that focused information generated a more negative N400 respons...
Researchers found that brain waves bias perception towards more probable sounds or words when stimuli were presented in less 'excitable' brain wave phases. This suggests that both the probability and timing of events influence what people perceive. The study has important implications for theories of predictive coding and language comp...
A study involving 75 researchers from 55 languages found consistent patterns in music and language features, such as pitch, timbre, and rhythm. The research suggests that songs may have evolved to facilitate social bonding and synchronisation, with slow, regular melodies making it easier for large groups to sing together.
A neuroimaging study found that brain activity increases early on in sentences while speaking and at the end of phrases during listening. This suggests that the brain builds sentence structure incrementally while speaking, but integrates information more slowly when listening.
A genome-wide meta-analysis study found that early vocabulary size is genetically linked to ADHD, literacy and cognitive abilities in children. The study used data from over 17,000 English-, Danish- or Dutch-speaking children and identified multiple genetic factors underlying vocabulary size in infancy and toddlerhood.
Researchers identified three distinct genomic dimensions related to autism features, including language performance and developmental motor delay. These dimensions suggest different underlying mechanisms contributing to neurodiversity in individuals with autism.
Researchers found that elephants exhibit hallmarks of domestication, including low aggression, empathic behaviour, and social learning. They propose that elephants' massive size and safe environment may have relaxed selective pressures for aggression, allowing for the evolution of prosocial behaviour.
Researchers found that harbour seals can discriminate between regular and irregular rhythmic patterns, as well as fast and slow tempos. This ability suggests that seals possess a sense of rhythm, which may be linked to their vocal learning capabilities.
Researchers discovered seven sperm whale vocal clans in the Pacific Ocean, each with unique dialects and identity codas. The study suggests that whales use these vocalizations to distinguish themselves from other groups, similar to human ethnic markers.
A genome-wide analysis of five reading- and language-based skills in thousands of people identified shared biological bases. The study found genetic links with language-related brain areas and individual differences in neuroanatomy, highlighting the complex interplay between nature and nurture.
Researchers at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics found that our brain is a prediction machine continuously making predictions on multiple levels. They analyzed brain activity while people listened to Hemingway or Sherlock Holmes stories and text, finding the brain response was stronger when words were unexpected in context.
A neuroimaging study reveals that the brain differentiates between sentences and phrases by using unique timing and connectivity of neural firings. The findings provide new insights into how the brain creates language and could have implications for machine learning systems.
The study found that variability in input leads to better generalization of learned concepts, with relevance being key. Researchers also discovered four types of variability affecting learning, including set size and scheduling, with the 'Mr. Miyagi principle' suggesting unrelated skills can benefit from practice.
Researchers found that harbor seals' vocal tracts matched their body size, explaining their ability to produce a wide range of calls. The study provides insight into the evolution of complex communication systems and highlights the intelligence of harbor seals.
A recent study found that most vocal learners, such as dolphins and whales, sound higher than expected based on their body size, not lower. This challenges the idea that faking body size is linked to vocal learning and suggests a different evolutionary scenario for vocal communication in mammals.
A large study comparing the brains of left-handers and right-handers found significant differences in brain asymmetry across ten regions. The research also discovered a link between genetic influences on handedness and brain asymmetries in language-related regions.
Researchers studied harbour seal pups' vocal responses to sea noise, finding they lowered their tone to adapt. The study reveals young seals have advanced control over their vocalizations at an early age.
A study on a critically endangered primate species has discovered categorical rhythms in its songs, similar to those found in human music. The researchers recorded indri songs over a period of twelve years and found both 1:1 and 1:2 rhythmic categories, as well as ritardando effects.
Researchers investigate how birds, mammals, and children learn sounds to understand the development of animal communication and human speech. Studies show that animals like parrots and bats can mimic sounds with varying degrees of accuracy, highlighting the complexities of vocal learning.
Researchers found that disrupting balance of gamma waves between hemispheres affects how brains integrate information from left and right ears. The study uses electric brain stimulation to manipulate interhemispheric connectivity, paving the way for new treatments for tinnitus and hearing loss.
A pilot study has created a comprehensive behavioral dataset to investigate individual differences in language skills. The dataset includes 112 participants who completed a battery of 33 tests, measuring linguistic experience, cognitive skills, and linguistic processing abilities.
Researchers found that single neurons' down-regulation of excitability can provide working memory for language processing. The model establishes context-dependent and serial order-sensitive memory, ideal for language comprehension.
A study found that animals who try to sound 'bigger' are often skilled sound learners. Researchers analyzed the sounds and body size of 164 mammals and discovered that those who fake their size are frequently good at learning new sounds. This discovery may provide insight into human speech evolution.
The mind composes meanings from separate words through a dynamic interaction between brain regions, using multi-modal cues. Humans and artificial intelligence systems differ in representing meaning, with humans using contextual knowledge and emotional cues.
A large-scale study found that people with autism spectrum disorder have less brain asymmetry, particularly in cortical thickness. The findings suggest altered development of the brain's left-right axis is involved in autism, affecting widespread brain regions.
Neuroscientist Hagoort challenges the classical view that language is confined to two major areas in the left half of the brain, instead proposing a multi-brain-network view that incorporates multiple regions and operations, including those shared with other cognitive domains like music and arithmetic.
Researchers used laminar fMRI to investigate brain activation at different layers during word reading, revealing top-down projections from language areas to deep layers. This breakthrough finding expands cognitive neuroimaging knowledge of brain networks.
A recent study by Max Planck Institute researchers found that learning to read does not harm the brain's ability to process culturally relevant objects like faces and houses. In fact, reading may even enhance overall visual processing.
Research at Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics found that slight variations in vocal tract anatomy impact vowel pronunciation, while cultural transmission amplifies these differences. This study sheds light on individual variation in speech and its role in shaping languages.
Researchers argue that speech technology is not a solution for low literacy rates, as reading trains the language prediction system. Skilled readers can predict upcoming words, which reduces processing load and frees up brain resources.
In a study published in Journal of Memory and Language, researchers found that people actively track the occurrence of 'uh' in spoken communication to predict upcoming low-frequency words. Participants adjusted their predictions when listening to atypical talkers, suggesting distributional learning of disfluency cues.