Language and the Brain Symposium
| 3–4 September 2026 | Berlin | Dates & Details |
|
This two-day symposium engages an interdisciplinary audience to reflect on advances in brain-based language research. It is held in memoriam of Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller, whose contributions to the study of language, the brain, and human cognition have significantly shaped the field, and have inspired generations of colleagues and students to approach complex questions of cognition from a neuromechanistic perspective. The symposium will also serve as a closing dissemination of the ERC Advanced Grant project “Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition”. We will present key results from the project, including insights from brain-constrained neural network simulations of language in the brain. Finally, the symposium will mark the conclusion of the Neurolinguistics research group at Freie Universität Berlin. We are happy to welcome all interested researchers for two days of discussion and fruitful exchange. Focal topics of the symposium are:
|
Symposium days: 03.09. - 04.09.2026 Poster submission deadline: 15.07.2026 Registration deadline: 03.08.2026 Link to poster submission: Click here Link to registration: Click here EEG/MEG analysis workshop registration: fully booked, currently no more spots available Participation in the symposium is free, registration is mandatory. |
Confirmed Speakers
- Marcelo Berthier – University of Málaga, Spain
- Thomas Picht – Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Germany
- Luciano Fadiga – Italian Institute of Technology, Italy
- Michael Pauen – Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Germany
- Yury Shtyrov – Aarhus University, Denmark
- Olaf Hauk – MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge, UK
- Max Garagnani – University of Bologna, Italy
- Günther Palm – University of Ulm, Germany
- Rachel Moseley – University of Cambridge, UK
- Sonja A. Kotz – Maastricht University, Netherlands
- Almut Schüz – Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik, Germany
- Kristof Strijkers – CNRS & Aix-Marseille University, France
- Guillaume Thierry – University of Bangor, UK & Adam Mickiewicz University, Poland
- Véronique Boulenger – CNRS & Université Lyon 2, France
Satellite Workshop: EEG/MEG analysis in MNE-Python
Please note that the workshop is fully booked, currently there are no more spots available.
Dr Olaf Hauk (University of Cambridge) will deliver a 3 × 2-hour workshop on EEG/MEG data analysis using the open-source software MNE-Python on 2 September 2026.
The sessions will cover key topics including preprocessing (filtering and artefact correction), source estimation, time–frequency analysis, and functional connectivity. Basic knowledge of Python coding is helpful but not required.
Call for posters
We welcome contributions focusing on the topics of the symposium. We explicitly welcome poster presentations reporting research at any stage (e.g. registered reports).
Abstracts should be up to 300 words long and should be submitted through the submission form (here) by July 15, 2026.
Posters are recommended to use the format A0, vertical.
Program
The poster program can be downloaded here.
| Start | End | Thu, 03.09. | Fr, 04.09. | |
| 09:00 | 09:30 | Registration | ||
| 09:30 | 10:00 | Registration | ||
| 10:00 | 10:30 | Introduction | Coffee + Poster Session | |
| 10:30 | 11:00 | Cholinergic stimulation and language therapy induce metaplasticity in aphasia associated with cholinergic basal forebrain involvement (Marcelo Berthier, University of Málaga) |
Anytime and everywhere – how Friedemann shaped my thinking about meaning (Olaf Hauk, University of Cambridge) |
|
| 11:00 | 11:30 | Honoring Friedemann Pulvermüller: a scientist who showed us that language lives in action, interaction, and recovery (Sonja Kotz, Maastricht University) |
Why the grounding problem goes far beyond language, and what we can do to solve it (Michael Pauen, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin) |
|
| 11:30 | 12:00 |
Language and the Brain: A Neurosurgical Perspective |
Coffee Break + Poster Session | |
| 12:00 | 12:30 | Lunch | Where language meets the body : A scientific journey inspired by Friedemann (Véronique Boulenger, CNRS, Laboratoire Dynamique du Langage, Lyon) |
|
| 12:30 | 13:00 | Lunch |
|
|
| 13:00 | 13:30 | Understanding simple sentences in a network of cortical areas (Günther Palm, Universität Ulm) |
Lunch | |
| 13:30 | 14:00 | How far the 6-area model has taken us: From language to attention, memory, and “free” decisions (Max Garagnani, University of Bologna) |
Lunch | |
| 14:00 | 14:30 | Coffee Break + Poster Session | Prediction & BraVoc (Luigi Grisoni, Milena Osterloh, Freie Universität Berlin) |
|
| 14:30 | 15:00 | Coffee Break + Poster Session |
ILAT & Neuropragmatics |
|
| 15:00 | 15:30 | Cortico-cortical long-range connectivity: Quantitative aspects of the human cortical white matter (Almut Schüz, Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik) |
Coffee Break + Poster Session | |
| 15:30 | 16:00 | Advances in neuromechanistic explanations of language through brain-constrained neural networks (Maxime Carrière, Fynn Dobler, Agata Feledyn, Freie Universität Berlin) |
Cell assemblies on fire: fast, automatic, distributed and embodied (Yury Shtyrov, Aarhus University) |
|
| 16:00 | 16:30 | Coffee Break + Poster Session | Linking production and perception: Meaning-specific neural alignment of words during language interaction. (Kristof Strijkers, Aix-Marseille University) |
|
| 16:30 | 17:00 |
tba |
Coffee Break + Pulvermüller Award for posters | |
| 17:00 | 17:30 | Sensorimotor Language (Luciano Fadiga, Istituto Italiano di Tecnologia) |
Closing Session |
The Venue
The symposium will take in the Henry-Ford-Bau, at Freie Universität Berlin (Garystraße 35, 14195 Berlin). The talks will take place in Hörsaal B.
The university can easily be reached by public transport (U3, S1, or the busses M11 and X11), by bike and by car.
Food recommendations
- Naya Jouly (Thielallee 34) for outstanding oriental food.
- Coffee Cross (Thielallee 34) for hot or cold sandwiches and pastry.
- Funa Sushi (Brümmerstraße 40) for sushi and Asian fusion food.
- Eßkultur im Ethnologischen Museum (Takustraße 38/40) for soups and delicious snacks.
Organization
Scientific Committee
Fynn Dobler
Tally Miller
Rosario Tomasello
Administrative Committee
Verena Arndt
Kostas Kosmas
Website
Tonja Scheidler
Funding
ERC-2019-ADG 883811 (Material Constraints Enabling Human Cognition)