Linking language and cognition to neuroscience via computation

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The past decade has seen an explosion of information concerning the neuroscience of language and other cognitive processes. We now have quite reasonable 'brain maps' that specify where in the brain the major operations occur that underlie various aspects of language processing. However, the relation between language and the brain is still at best understood at a correlational level. There is no explanatory understanding of how specialized neural circuits account for the implementation of the specific operations that underpin linguistic computations and representations. The emphasis of this workshop is to bring together experts from various fields (e.g., neuroscience, cognitive science, linguistics, computer science, and psychology) to identify new directions in the computational neurobiology of language. There are two intended outcomes. First, the workshop should stimulate new scientific collaborations that use computation to connect cognition/language and neuroscience. Second, participants will write a "white paper" that (i) summarizes key ideas, problems, and prospects for research in this interdisciplinary area of inquiry and (ii) identifies and recommends promising questions and methodological tools for future work in cognitive neuroscience, with a special emphasis on speech and language processing.