Biological Foundations Of Language Research Articles

Impact of Reading on the Biological Foundations of Language, Cognition, and Emotion

The article explores the biology of reading and how reading influences the biological relationship among language, cognition, and emotion (LCE). Reading aids in the enhancement of LCE under the precondition that biological predispositions for reading ability and LCE, such as genetic makeup, epigenetic modifications and neuronal development are favourable. A conceptual model was developed to explain how reading incrementally enhances LCE. The model serves as a tool to understand the biological and pedagogical conditions through which reading helps in progressing through successive LCE levels. The article also proposes that this holistic perspective of reading, considering genetics, epigenetics, neuroscience, neuropsychology and pedagogy, paves way for targeted clinical and educational interventions for people with language learning difficulties/disability.

On the Biological Foundations of Language: Recent Advances in Language Acquisition, Deterioration, and Neuroscience Begin to Converge

In this paper, experimental results on the study of language loss in pro- dromal Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the elderly are linked to experimen- tal results from the study of language acquisition in the child, via a tran- sitional stage of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI). Recent brain imag- ing results from a pilot study comparing prodromal AD and normal ag- ing are reported. Both, behavioral results and their underlying neural underpinnings, identify the source of language deficits in MCI as break- down in syntax–semantics integration. These results are linked to inde- pendent discoveries regarding the ontogeny of language in the child and their neural foundations. It is suggested that these convergent results ad- vance our understanding of the true nature of maturational processes in language, allowing us to reconsider a “regression hypothesis” (e.g., Ribot 1881), wherein later acquisition predicts earliest dissolution.

Justifications for a Discontinuity Theory of Language Evolution

In Chapter 6 of Biological Foundations of Language, Lenneberg argues against continuity theories of language evolution, which claim that language evolved from simpler communication systems. Although Lenneberg was pessimistic about even discontinuity theories explaining how language evolved, discontinuity has become significant in the Minimalist program, which posits that our species’ acquisition of Merge was the key discontinuity that made language possible. On the basis of a unified description of natural communication systems, I show that language is indeed based upon a cognitive discontinuity, which is moreover specific to linguistic ability. However, I argue that even Minimalist theories must recognise this discontinuity as the sensorimotor interface with syntax, rather than syntax itself. This ultimately supports the view that syntactic structures are structures of thought, but taking this claim seriously means reimagining how syntax relates to semantics and morphology, as the traditional ‘lexical item’ is no longer a tenable primitive of generative theory.

The Relationship between Phoneme Production and Perception in Speech-Impaired and Typically-Developing Children

One of the central questions that Eric Lenneberg raised in his seminal book, Biological Foundations of Language is: What is the relationship between language comprehension and language production? This paper reviews Lenneberg’s case study of a child with congenital anarthria and then presents the results of two studies that investigate the relationship between phoneme perception and production. The first study investigates the phoneme identification skills of a child with developmental apraxia who, like the anarthric child studied by Lenneberg, had essentially no speech yet had no difficulty understanding speech. The second study investigates the extent to which 28 typically-developing children’s ability to identify phonemes is related to their ability to produce phonemes. The results of both studies support Lenneberg’s conclusion that children’s ability to perceive speech is not dependent on their ability to produce speech. Thus, Lenneberg’s original case study and the two studies presented in this paper argue against gestural theories of speech perception such as the Motor Theory.

From Zero to Fifty: Considerations on Eric Lenneberg’s Biological Foundations of Language and Updates

From Zero to Fifty: Considerations on Eric Lenneberg’s Biological Foundations of Language and Updates

Biological foundations of language

Biological foundations of language

Globularity and language-readiness: generating new predictions by expanding the set of genes of interest.

This study builds on the hypothesis put forth in Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco (2014), according to which the developmental changes expressed at the levels of brain morphology and neural connectivity that resulted in a more globular braincase in our species were crucial to understand the origins of our language-ready brain. Specifically, this paper explores the links between two well-known ‘language-related’ genes like FOXP2 and ROBO1 implicated in vocal learning and the initial set of genes of interest put forth in Boeckx and Benítez-Burraco (2014), with RUNX2 as focal point. Relying on the existing literature, we uncover potential molecular links that could be of interest to future experimental inquiries into the biological foundations of language and the testing of our initial hypothesis. Our discussion could also be relevant for clinical linguistics and for the interpretation of results from paleogenomics.

Genetic insights into the functional elements of language

Language disorders cover a wide range of conditions with heterologous and overlapping phenotypes and complex etiologies harboring both genetic and environmental influences. Genetic approaches including the identification of genes linked to speech and language phenotypes and the characterization of normal and aberrant functions of these genes have, in recent years, unraveled complex details of molecular and cognitive mechanisms and provided valuable insight into the biological foundations of language. Consistent with this approach, we have reviewed the functional aspects of allelic variants of genes which are currently known to be either causally associated with disorders of speech and language or impact upon the spectrum of normal language ability. We have also reviewed candidate genes associated with heritable speech and language disorders. In addition, we have evaluated language phenotypes and associated genetic components in developmental syndromes that, together with a spectrum of altered language abilities, manifest various phenotypes and offer details of multifactorial determinants of language function. Data from this review have revealed a predominance of regulatory networks involved in the control of differentiation and functioning of neurons, neuronal tracks and connections among brain structures associated with both cognitive and language faculties. Our findings, furthermore, have highlighted several multifactorial determinants in overlapping speech and language phenotypes. Collectively this analysis has revealed an interconnected developmental network and a close association of the language faculty with cognitive functions, a finding that has the potential to provide insight into linguistic hypotheses defining in particular, the contribution of genetic elements to and the modular nature of the language faculty.

Le drame linguistique marocain by Fouad Laroui

Reviews 289 first collects recent work employing online measures and covers such diverse topics as functional neuroimaging studies of Parkinson’s disease, event-related potential (ERP) investigations of syntactic and lexical processing, unconventional utterances among children with specific language impairment (SLI), and the use of emotional prosody by children with autism spectrum disorders. The second part of the issue deals with the use of offline measures (for example, judgment and production tasks) in psycholinguistic studies of French, and reports an investigation of the relationship between educational level and metaphor processing, a study on morphological inflection among Parkinson’s patients, and an assessment battery for language impairment in neurodegenerative diseases. The volume’s goal of strengthening connections between language-related disciplines is admirable, and it is consistent with the sentiment that greater interplay can lead to linguistic investigation that is better grounded in the biological foundations of language. While this is an area of linguistics and the language sciences where increased interdisciplinarity is needed (regardless of the language of investigation), this special issue does not consistently bring these fields closer to that goal. The articles on Parkinson’s and other neurodegenerative diseases are well constructed and report findings that seem justified given the design of their experiments; they focus, however, on research areas that remain of greater interest to clinicians and neurolinguists than to the more general population of applied linguists that is likely to encounter the volume. The articles reporting ERP and behavioral findings may be more accessible, and of greater interest, to applied linguists and psycholinguists. The review of findings from two decades’worth of imaging and lesion studies will serve as a useful, if dense, introduction to neurolinguistics for some novices, and the report on the assessment of language impairment functions equally well as a survey of communication disorders. The assessment battery presented in the latter article also has the potential to contribute to the clinical and research practices of the Francophone world. For a volume that targets applied linguists, however, “language and brain” is taken to encompass an overly broad range of topics: neuroanatomy; lexical-semantic and syntactic processing; language processing in bilinguals; and such diverse disorders as Parkinson’s disease, autism and SLI. Apart from linguists seeking a broad survey of current French-based work in these areas or specialists seeking out new work in one of these subfields, the volume will have little to offer as a coherent unit. That said, specialists in these fields are encouraged to seek out the individual articles. Northern Illinois University Robert V. Reichle Laroui, Fouad. Le drame linguistique marocain. Casablanca: Fennec, 2011. ISBN 978-9954-1-6736-6. Pp. 188. 80 DH. Cet essai richement documenté, qui s’inspire du concept de diglossie (Ferguson 1959), permet d’apprécier l’ampleur du drame linguistique marocain. En adoptant une approche sociolinguistique, l’auteur problématise le débat sur le statut des langues au Maroc: l’amazighe, l’arabe, le français et les autres langues étrangères. Le terme-clé que Laroui choisit pour qualifier la relation entre les Marocains et leurs langues est “confrontation”. Il écrit en effet que “les Marocains se trouvent confrontés, dès leur petite enfance, à plusieurs langues” (7). En menant une réflexion particulière, Laroui évite les discours simplistes sur l’identité, la culture et les langues au Maghreb. Grâce à sa connaissance des deux cultures marocaine et française, l’auteur établit des parallèles entre les débats linguistiques au Maghreb et en France.Après une discussion sur la relation entre la langue et le pouvoir, l’auteur analyse les difficultés de l’arabe littéraire. Ensuite il évoque les écrivains francophones tels que Ben Jelloun, Serhane et Nedali et leur relation aux langues en présence. Ce dernier a confronté cinq langues: l’amazigh en tant qu’enfant, l’arabe dialectal et l’arabe littéraire à l’école, puis le français, et finalement l’anglais. Enraciné dans la société, le multilinguisme fait partie du paysage culturel marocain. En plus du français et de l’amazigh, deux langues arabes coexistent au Maroc: l’arabe littéraire et le dialectal marocain (la darija). Bien qu’elle...

Neural networks and the experience and cultivation of mind

Hard core neural network research includes development of mathematical models of cognitive prediction and optimization aimed at dual use, both as models of what we see in brain circuits and behavior, and as useful general-purpose engineering technology. The pathway and principles now exist to let us someday replicate learning abilities as elevated as what we see in the brain of the mouse-but how can this help us today in understanding and maximizing the much greater potential of the human mind, as addressed by many schools of thought all over the world for centuries? This paper discusses how we might use what we have learned at a lower level to better illuminate key phenomena in first person and clinical human experience such as Freud's "psychic energy", the role of traumatic experience, the interpretation of dreams, creativity, the cultivation of sanity and sensitivity, and the biological foundations of language.

The Effect of Mental Illness on Language Regression to the Mother Tongue in Bilingual Teenagers

The Effect of Mental Illness on Language Regression to the Mother Tongue in Bilingual Teenagers

Electrical Brain Responses in Language-Impaired Children Reveal Grammar-Specific Deficits

BackgroundScientific and public fascination with human language have included intensive scrutiny of language disorders as a new window onto the biological foundations of language and its evolutionary origins. Specific language impairment (SLI), which affects over 7% of children, is one such disorder. SLI has received robust scientific attention, in part because of its recent linkage to a specific gene and loci on chromosomes and in part because of the prevailing question regarding the scope of its language impairment: Does the disorder impact the general ability to segment and process language or a specific ability to compute grammar? Here we provide novel electrophysiological data showing a domain-specific deficit within the grammar of language that has been hitherto undetectable through behavioural data alone.Methods and FindingsWe presented participants with Grammatical(G)-SLI, age-matched controls, and younger child and adult controls, with questions containing syntactic violations and sentences containing semantic violations. Electrophysiological brain responses revealed a selective impairment to only neural circuitry that is specific to grammatical processing in G-SLI. Furthermore, the participants with G-SLI appeared to be partially compensating for their syntactic deficit by using neural circuitry associated with semantic processing and all non-grammar-specific and low-level auditory neural responses were normal.ConclusionsThe findings indicate that grammatical neural circuitry underlying language is a developmentally unique system in the functional architecture of the brain, and this complex higher cognitive system can be selectively impaired. The findings advance fundamental understanding about how cognitive systems develop and all human language is represented and processed in the brain.

The inheritance and innateness of grammars. Myrna Gopnik (Ed.). New York: Oxford University Press, 1997. Pp. 232.

What could possibly be innate? John Morton asked this question in a symposium on psycholinguistics in 1969 (Morton, 1970), and, as this book makes clear, he was certainly not the last to ask it. The Inheritance and Innateness of Grammars is one of the most recent manifestations of our fascination with the question of just what it is that makes it possible for humans – and only humans – to learn language as we know it. The book is the product of a conference that was held at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver in 1993. Nine chapters present work by authors whose expertise includes such topics as speech perception, neurobiology, sign language, language impairment, and, of course, developmental psycholinguistics. Although the word “inheritance” in the title can be understood to refer to genetics, it would have been helpful if the authors had provided their definitions of the term “innateness.” In its primary sense, innate means inborn or present at birth, but clearly no one is arguing that language itself is present at birth, although most would agree that some capacities that may underlie language can be demonstrated in very young infants. Eric Lenneberg provided one definition of innateness in his book, Biological Foundations of Language (1967), which may be what some authors have in mind since his work is frequently referenced: Animals may be thought of as functioning like machines. Their inner structure is not the result of accidental circumstances. The machine unfolds during development, and the internal structure is programmed onto the ontogenetic process. Let us call the internal structure innate mechanisms and the modes of operation that are determined by these mechanisms innate behavior. (p. 220)

What infants know: the new cognitive science of early development

1. Explaining our Behaviour 2. Seeing and Hearing 3. The World and its Objects 4. Myself and Others 5. The Biological Foundations of Language.

Biological Foundations of Language: Clues from Sign Language

Revue des fondements biologiques du bugage humain: organisation architecturale du langage, sa representation dans le cerveau, systeme gestuel visuel developpe chez les sourds

SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS ON ADULT LANGUAGE LEARNING

Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesVolume 379, Issue 1 p. 279-290 Full Access SOCIAL CONSTRAINTS ON ADULT LANGUAGE LEARNING Robbins Burling, Robbins Burling Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109Search for more papers by this author Robbins Burling, Robbins Burling Department of Anthropology, University of Michigan Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109Search for more papers by this author First published: December 1981 https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1981.tb42015.xCitations: 5AboutReferencesRelatedInformationPDFPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessClose modalShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL References 1 Penfield, W. & L. Roberts 1959. Speech and Brain Mechanisms. Princeton University Press. Princeton , N.J. . 2 Lenneberg, E. H. 1967. Biological Foundations of Language. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York , N.Y. . 3 Krashen, S. D. 1975. The critical period for language acquisition and its possible bases. Ann. N.Y. Acad. Sci. 263: 211– 224. 4 Lamendella, J. T. 1977. General principles of neurofunctional organization and their manifestation in primary and non-primary language acquisition. Lang. Learn. 27: 155– 196. 5 Inhelder, B. & J. Piaget 1958. The Growth of Logical Thinking from Childhood to Adolescence. Basic Books. New York , N.Y. . 6 Schumann, J. H. 1978. The Pidginization Process. Newbury House. Rowley , Mass . 7 Waoner-Gough, J. & E. Hatch 1975. The importance of input data in second language acquisition studies. Lang. Learn. 25: 297– 309. 8 Neufeld, G. G. 1979. Toward a theory of language learning ability. Lang. Learn. 29: 227– 241. 9 Hellberg, S. (Personal communication.). 10 Schumann, J. H. 1978. The relationship of pidginization, creolization, and decreolization to second language acquisition. Lang. Learn. 28: 367– 379. 11 Andersen, R. W. 1979. Expanding Schumann's pidginization hypothesis. Lang. Learn. 29: 105– 119. 12 Snow, C. E. & C. A. Ferguson 1977. Talking to Children. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge , England . 13 Ferguson, C. A. 1972. Toward a characterization of English foreigner talk. Anthropol. Linguistics 17: 1– 14. 14 Strevens, P. 1977. New Orientations in the Teaching of English: 28 ff. Oxford University Press. Oxford , England . 15 Deveny, J. J., Jr. & J. C. Bookout 1976. The intensive language course: toward a successful approach. Foreign Lang. Ann.: 58– 63. Citing Literature Volume379, Issue1Native Language and Foreign Language AcquisitionDecember 1981Pages 279-290 ReferencesRelatedInformation RecommendedNeural basis of bilingual language controlMarco Calabria, Albert Costa, David W. Green, Jubin Abutalebi, Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesSigned Language and Human Action ProcessingDavid P. Corina, Heather Patterson Knapp, Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesLANGUAGE‐LEARNING APPROACH STYLES OF ADULT MULTILINGUALS AND SUCCESSFUL LANGUAGE LEARNERSRuth Marion Graeme Ramsay, Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesLanguage/Culture/Mind/BrainPatricia K. Kuhl, Feng-Ming Tsao, Huei-Mei Liu, Yang Zhang, Bart DE Boer, Annals of the New York Academy of SciencesSOCIAL PROCESS IN FIRST- AND SECOND-LANGUAGE LEARNINGSusan Ervin-Tripp, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences

Reading in Early Childhood

Reading in Early Childhood

The Linguistic Development of Genie

This paper discusses the linguistic development of Genie, an adolescent girl who for most of her life underwent a degree of social isolation and experiential deprivation unparalleled in the reports of scientific investigation. This case touches on questions of profound interest to psychologists, philosophers, and linguists, including the relationship between cognition and language, the interdependence or autonomy of linguistic competence and performance, the mental abilities underlying language, proposed universal stages in language learning, the critical age for language acquisition, and the biological foundations of language.* Interest in cases of children reared in environments of extreme social isolation can be traced back at least to the 18th century. At that time the interest was stimulated by the debates concerning the theory of innate ideas and the struggle between the 'geneticists' and the 'environmentalists'. In 1758, Carl Linnaeus first included Homo ferus as a subdivision of Homo sapiens. One of the defining characteristics of Homo ferus, according to Linnaeus, was his lack of speech or overt language. All the cases in the literature attest to the correctness of this observation. The most dramatic cases of children reared under severe conditions of social isolation and stimulus deprivation are those described as 'wild' or 'feral' children, children who have reportedly been reared with wild animals or have lived alone in the wilderness. Two such children, Amala and Kamala, found in 1920, were supposedly reared by wolves. Information on the prior history of these children is

Discussion: The neurobiology of language (Lenneberg)

Thank you Dr. Hagin, members and guests of the Orton Society. Every once in a while, say about once every 500 years, there appears upon the scene a man who seems to transcend any rigid professional limitations, a man who is equally at home in many disciplines. Such a person is Dr. Lenneberg. Not only is he an inspiring and innovative psychologist but he is a linguist, a neurologist, a basic biologist, a speech therapist, and he probably could teach reading too. In all of these skills he brings a depth of knowledge and wide experience. My hrst acquaintance with Dr. Lenne berg was through his book, The Biological Foundations of Language, which I first obtained in the Christmas of 1967. So powerful was this book, that even while sitting around the pool in Miami, with the bikini-clad beauties wandering about, my interest was solely with this book. It was indeed a pleasure this afternoon to listen to Dr. Lenneberg discuss various problems which we have, in our own minor way, struggled with for a long time. Dr. Lenneberg has made three major points : ( 1 ) that language is the resultant of the environment interacting with the biological substrata present in each individual, the interaction taking place in the dimension of time, (2) that theoretically language is "relational," "that we have to take into account the relationship between temporal configurations," and (3) that the concept of language as a basic biological phenomenon has certain practical implications. The concept that language is a basic biological phenomenon is, of course, not a strange one to a physician. Dr. Lenneberg stresses the inter action between experiential and genetically determined biological phe nomena, leading to new physiological states which may respond in different ways to environmental stimuli. So interwoven are these factors in language development that Dr. Lenneberg states it is futile to make the distinction between biological and experiential factors. It seems to me, however, that we cannot stop at that. If we consider the old Stimulus-» Response formula, it is important to know what factors are on each side of the equa tion, what stimulus produces what response. More than that we would like to investigate the arrow of the equation, namely, what is happening in the brain between the stimulus and the response. Only when these three factors, the stimulus, the arrow and the response, are teased apart and their interrelationships studied, can we really begin to understand the forces which go into creating a language problem and the forces we must apply in prevention and remediation. We do not yet know, for example, just what "environmental deprivation" does to developing language, what chemical factors are involved in learning. Certainly even the replication of proteins must take place at a molecular level under certain conditions

Digressions on the biological foundations of language

Digressions on the biological foundations of language