Attention and Language Performance

The language system in the human brain does not operate in isolation but critically interacts with other cognitive systems, including perception, action, memory, and attention. This research group seeks to understand the relations among language, attention, and the brain. We study language and attention in healthy (unbalanced-bilingual) adult individuals as well as in typically developing and language-impaired children, and in adults with aphasia due to stroke or neurodegenerative disease. Our goal is not only to better theoretically understand the relationship between language and other cognitive systems, i.e., attention, but also to contribute to the improvement of the diagnosis and treatment of language deficits in children with developmental language disorder and adults with aphasia.

In our research, we have adopted a multi-method approach that includes measurements of response time and accuracy, eye tracking, electrophysiological (EEG, MEG) and hemodynamic (fMRI) neuroimaging, tractography, imaging genetics, and computational modeling. Our research is driven by, and aims to further develop, the WEAVER++ computational model of attention and language performance and its recent extension called WEAVER++/ARC, which synthesizes behavioral psycholinguistic, functional neuroimaging, tractography, and aphasiological evidence.

Links

• Attention and Language Performance Lab