Course info

One of the fastest moving areas in the field of cognitive neurocience is the study of the neurocognition of language. This module provides an advanced introduction to major contemporary topics in the field. The module will introduce different neuroscience methodologies used to study human interactions in the brain but will pay special attention to electro-physiological measurements that have proven to be very effective in studying the neurocognitive architecture underlying language comprehension. The module will introduce findings highlighting how auditory sentence processing is anchored in the brain, how language comprehension might be different for bilinguals, and how emotional and attitudinal language is processed on-line. Relevant theories and research of each topic will be critically analysed in the weekly seminar-style sessions.

The overall aim is to provide students with an understanding of the neurocognitive processes underlying human communication. To this end, students are introduced to a range of research findings within the field of Neurocognition of Language, which will enable them to understand how complex psycholinguistic processes may be represented in the brain. Students will be expected to read journal articles that describe experimental paradigms and theoretical (re)views of topics in Neurocognition of Language research. Attendance at seminars, effective note-taking, and prepared readings will be essential to successfully complete this module.