MRI research
MRI research

Theme 1: Language and communication

Research in Donders Theme 1: Language and communication aims to understand the complexity of human language faculty and its development at the behavioural, cognitive, and neural levels in healthy individuals as well as in populations with dysfunction in linguistic and communication skills.

Highlights

Nederlands als Tweede Taal

Learning a new language makes you forget other languages

Learning words in a new foreign language makes it more difficult to remember those same words in another foreign language. That is the conclusion of a research study by Kristin Lemhöfer, Psycholinguist at Radboud University and The Donders Institute.

Stephanie Forkel

Stephanie Forkel receives Elizabeth Warrington Prize

Donders Principal Investigator and leader of the Language and Communication theme, Dr Stephanie Forkel, has been awarded the 2023 Elizabeth Warrington Prize by the British Neuropsychological Society (BNS). The Elizabeth Warrington Prize is awarded.

Our approach

Our researchers adopt a multilevel approach from genes to neurons, brain, cognition, interaction, and society. This broad approach to language also forms the basis in understanding language breakdowns as in acquired or developmental language disorders and to devise clinical applications and solutions to enhance language and communication skills in society for minority groups such as immigrants, hard of hearing etc. as well as for communication in crisis times (i.e, COVID19 era).

Theme Leader

Each of the four research themes of the Donders Institute has a Theme Leader. They coordinate discussions on subjects, host theme meetings and take part in the Research Platform to discuss strategic policy aspects. Contact Stephanie Forkel or secretary Nicola Rijzewijk if you want to know more.

Stephanie ForkelNicola Rijzewijk

Research groups linked to this theme

Ardi Roelofs

Attention and Language Performance

Ardi Roelofs

Stephanie Forkel

Clinical Neuroanatomy of Language

Stephanie Forkel

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Cognitive Aspects of Multilingualism

Ton Dijkstra

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Communication in Social Interaction (CoSI)

Judith Holler

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Contextual Flexibility in Language Processing

Herbert Schriefers

Wim Pouw

Dynamic Signs and Signals (Dynamos)

Wim Pouw

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Intention & Action

Ivan Toni

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Language and Computation in Neural Systems

Andrea Martin

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Language Development

Caroline Rowland

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Language Function and Dysfunction

Vitória Piai

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Multimodal Language and Cognition

Asli Özyürek

Peter Hagoort

Neurobiology of Language

Peter Hagoort

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Neurocognition of bilingualism

Kristin Lemhöfer

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Neurogenetics of Speech and Language

Simon Fisher

Donders Institute brain language and communication

Psychology of Language

Antje Meyer

James McQueen

Sound Learning

James McQueen

Hans Rutger Bosker

Speech Perception in Audiovisual Communication (SPEAC)

Hans Rutger Bosker

Linda Drijvers

The Communicative Brain

Linda Drijvers

Affiliated institutes and researchers

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics

How we produce and understand language, and how we acquire these skills.

Max Planck Institute
Centre for Language Studies

Centre for Language Studies

Dedicated to the understanding of language and the way we use it.

Centre for Language Studies