Language, Communication and the Brain

描述(由申请人提供)：我们建议更新我们在语言、交际和大脑方面的跨学科课程，旨在培养一种新型的跨学科、多方法的语言科学家。拟议的计划汇集了这个社区丰富的专业知识、想法、人口和技术，将它们交给对语言学习、使用和障碍的潜在心理和神经机制感兴趣的年轻科学家。未来5年的跨部门计划(跨4个部门)将由5对初级-高级主任(包括计划主任M.Kutas)和5个研究-培训部分的主任组成的执行委员会领导：(1)心理语言学(K.Rayner，V.Ferreiera)，包括使用行为、眼球跟踪和电生理测量对实时语言理解和产生的研究；(2)语言的神经成像(E.Halgren，R.Kluender)，包括ERP、MEG、fMRI和应用于正常和异常个体的颅内记录；(3)语言的计算模型(J.Elman，A.Kehler)，包括一大类建模技术(如神经网络、大规模语料库的统计分析、贝叶斯模型)；(4)手语和手势(K.Emmore，S.Coulson)，通过多种技术本身并探索人类语言的神经生物学和认知结构；(5)语言习得和衰退(M.Kutas，R.Mayberry)，从婴儿期到老年的语言习得、学习和使用的多种方法。所有受训人员都专攻(至少)这5个领域中的2个，并通过实验室轮换、课程作业和加州大学圣地亚哥分校语言研究中心内的活动(由加州大学和南加州大学的更多科学家提供)对所有5个领域都有一定的接触。我们每年要求7名博士后(增加1名)和2名博士后(每人支持2年)。这一培训计划对公众健康的好处将是改变主流观点，即语言是一个抽象的符号处理和规则生成系统，在某些大脑结构中例示为一个更动态的系统，在这种系统中，语言是一种处理经验，可能会改变参与解释语言的大脑区域的解剖(和相关的功能)组织。这种变化的观点对第一语言和第二语言(双语和移民)的学习和正常衰老和脑损伤的补救措施有一定的影响。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): We propose renewal of our interdisciplinary program in Language, Communication, and the Brain aimed at training a new breed of interdisciplinary, multi-method language scientist. The proposed program pulls together the expertise, ideas, populations and technologies available in abundance across this community, placing them at the disposal of young scientists interested in the mental and neural mechanisms underlying language learning, use, and disorders across the lifespan. The cross-departmental program (across 4 departments) for the next 5 years will be headed by an Executive Committee of 5 junior-senior director pairs (including program director, M. Kutas) and directors of 5 research-training components: (1) Psycholinguistics (K. Rayner, V. Ferreiera), including studies of real-time language comprehension and production, using behavioral, eye tracking, and electrophysiological measures; (2) Neuroimaging of Language (E. Halgren, R. Kluender), including ERP, MEG, fMRI, and intracranial recordings applied to normal and abnormal individuals; (3) Computational Modeling of Language (J. Elman, A. Kehler), including a broad class of modeling techniques (e.g., neural networks, statistical analysis of large scale language corpora, Bayesian models); (4) Signed Languages and Gesture (K. Emmorey, S. Coulson) studied via multiple techniques per se and as probes into the neurobiological and cognitive architectures of human language; and (5) Language Acquisition and Decline (M. Kutas, R. Mayberry), multi-method approaches to the language acquisition, learning, and use from infancy to old age. All trainees specialize in (at least) 2 of the 5 areas, with some exposure to all 5 areas through laboratory rotations, coursework, and activities within the UCSD Center for Research in Language, offered by a larger faculty of scientists at UCSD and SDSU. We request 7 pre-doctoral (increase of 1) and 2 post-doctoral (each supported for 2 years) trainees per year. The public health benefits of this training program will be to change the predominant view that language is an abstract symbol processing, rule-generating system instantiated in some brain structure to a more dynamic one in which language is a processing experience that may alter the anatomical (and associated functional) organizations of the brain regions involved in interpreting it. This changing perspective has implications for 1st and 2nd language (bilingual & immigrant) learning and remediation with normal aging and brain damage.