Language

The Language team is an interdisciplinary group composed of specialists in adult and developmental cognitive psychology, cognitive neuropsychology, neuroscience, and linguistics. Our common goal is to better understand the complex organization of language: acquisition, normal and pathological functioning, and its structural manifestation. Within this context, the questions on which we are working are varied, ranging from fundamental problems to those more applied.

How do we learn to read? What is the origin of dyslexia and how can we manage it?

What neuronal circuits are implicated in reading and speaking?

How are we able to select words as we speak, and why do certain patients have word-finding difficulties ?

Major results from the group include: the development of a cross-linguistic theory of how children learn to read , the study of morphological and semantic processing in children and in adults, the modeling of linguistic processes using connectionist and analytical models, the studies of the multimodal or "embodied" nature of linguistic representations and processes, and the importance of different cerebral areas for word production.

Besides the recognized quality of publications (PNAS, Psychological Review, Psychological Science, etc.), the impact of this work, and its international influence, the group distinguishes itself by its active engagement within certain major debates, such as the methods of reading, dyslexia, deafness, or other language troubles.

Below are some representative publications. More information can be found on the group member pages, which can be accessed from the left column.

F.-Xavier Alario
Pascale Cole
Jonathan Grainer
Liliane Sprenger
Johannes Ziegler

Postdoc : Royce Anders, Mathieu Declerck,
ATER : Eddy Cavalli
CDD IE : Edouard Alavoine
 

Doc : Moktar Billami, Mariana Boros, Hélène Brethes, Ambre Denis-Noël, Alexia Fasola, Ludivine Javourey, Julie Lassault, Jonathan Mirault, Joshua Snell, Gabriel Weindel