Abstract: Acquired aphasias have long inspired linguistic theory and models of language in the brain. They have also been brought to bear on foundational issues like the relation between thought and language, and the neural basis of mental disorders. As Carl Wernicke already noted in 1874: ‘From time immemorial, people have hoped that aphasia might be a starting point which leads to an understanding of mental illnesses’. In this talk, I will survey recent studies from my lab that investigate the pervasiveness of language dysfunction in neurodevelopmental, neuropsychiatric, and neurodegenerative disorders, including autism, formal thought disorder in schizophrenia, and Huntington’s disease. In line with Wernicke’s statement, the results support the conclusion that our linguistic phenotype is neither uniform nor stable across human populations: like our cognitive phenotype, it is subject to systematic variation. Moreover, we should explore language as a potential primary factor in our models of the mental disorders in question.

Der Vortrag findet im Rahmen der Vortragsreihe „Brain Language Talks“ an der Freien Universität Berlin statt.

Wir freuen uns auf Ihr Kommen.