Language Evolution and Computation Bibliography

Our site (www.isrl.uiuc.edu/amag/langev) retired, please use https://langev.com instead.
Peter Hagoort
2018
Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences 21:191-194, 2018
The neurobiology of language has to specify the cognitive architecture of complex language functions such as speaking and comprehending language, and, in addition, how these functions are mapped onto the underlying anatomical and physiological building blocks of the brain (the ...MORE ⇓
The neurobiology of language has to specify the cognitive architecture of complex language functions such as speaking and comprehending language, and, in addition, how these functions are mapped onto the underlying anatomical and physiological building blocks of the brain (the neural architecture). Here it is argued that the constraints provided by the classical anatomical measures (cytoarchitectonics and myeloarchitectonics) are in our current understanding only very loose constraints for detailed specifications of cognitive functions, including language learning and language processing. However, measures of the computational features of brain tissue might provide stronger constraints. For understanding cognitive specialization, for the time being we thus have to put our cards on measures of functional instead of structural neuroanatomy. The implication for an evolutionary stance on the neurobiology of language is that in a crossspecies comparative perspective one needs to identify the factors that gave rise to the properties of the canonical microcircuits in the neocortex, and to the large scale network organization that created the language-readiness of the human brain.
2012
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences 367(1598):1971--1983, 2012
Abstract The human capacity to acquire language is an outstanding scientific challenge to understand. Somehow our language capacities arise from the way the human brain processes, develops and learns in interaction with its environment. To set the stage, we ...
2010
Exploring the cognitive infrastructure of communicationPDF
Interaction Studies 11(1):51-77, 2010
Human communication is often thought about in terms of transmitted messages in a conventional code like a language. But communication requires a specialized interactive intelligence. Senders have to be able to perform recipient design, while receivers need to be able to do ...MORE ⇓
Human communication is often thought about in terms of transmitted messages in a conventional code like a language. But communication requires a specialized interactive intelligence. Senders have to be able to perform recipient design, while receivers need to be able to do intention recognition, knowing that recipient design has taken place. To study this interactive intelligence in the lab, we developed a new task that taps directly into the underlying abilities to communicate in the absence of a conventional code. We show that subjects are remarkably successful communicators under these conditions, especially when senders get feedback from receivers. Signaling is accomplished by the manner in which an instrumental action is performed, such that instrumentally dysfunctional components of an action are used to convey communicative intentions. The findings have important implications for the nature of the human communicative infrastructure, and the task opens up a line of experimentation on human communication.
Frontiers in Neuroscience 4:159--177, 2010
Abstract We know a great deal about the neurophysiological mechanisms supporting instrumental actions, ie, actions designed to alter the physical state of the environment. In contrast, little is known about our ability to select communicative actions, ie, actions ...
Brain and language, 2010
In this paper we examine the neurobiological correlates of syntax, the processing of structured sequences, by comparing FMRI results on artificial and natural language syntax. We discuss these and similar findings in the context of formal language and computability ...