Introduction to neurolinguistics

Timetable

Module aim (aims)

acquainting students with brain anatomy, structures, functions and mechanisms involved in acquisition, perception, representation, production and comprehension of language/speech

familiarizing students the brain mapping methods

familiarizing students with knowledge on the subcortical and cortical structures involved in the production, perception, representation and comprehension of speech beginning from phoneme to discourse

familiarizing students with knowledge on the subcortical and cortical structures involved in speaking, reading and writing

developing students’ understanding how the brain processes sentences and discourse

Pre-requisites in terms of knowledge, skills and social competences (where relevant)

basic, high school knowledge of biology and physiology of the nervous system; knowledge of English at the B2 level 

Syllabus

Week 1: anatomy and physiology of the central nervous system  

Week 2: morphology and functions of the central nervous system

Week 3: subcortical and cortical structures of the brain and their main functions 

Week 4: chemical and electrical languages of the brain  

Week 5: gyral-sulcal and cytoarchitectonic organization of the neocortex  

Week 6: brain mapping methods  

Week 7: speech perception – cortical and subcortical structures and processes  

Week 8: emotional and linguistic prosody – perception and production  

Week 9: how does the brain read and write  

Week 10: nouns processing: structures, processes involved  

Week 11: verbs processing: structures and processes involved  

Week 12: adjectives processing: neural distinctions between emotional and nonemotional, abstract and concrete 

Week 13: sentence processing: A large scale network 

Week 14: discourse comprehension; the role of anticipation and state of the mind

Week 15: revisn and course summary 

Reading list

Kemmerer, D. (2015). Cognitive Neuroscience of Language. New York: Psychology Press. 

Ward, J. (2015) The Students’ Guide to Cognitive Neuroscience. New York: Psychology Press