Hanse Lectures in Neurosciences am HWK :“How does the Human Brain compute Language? The Dendrophilia Hypothesis”

Prof. Dr. Tecumseh Fitch from the University of Vienna (Austria) is an evolutionary biologist and cognitive scientist at the Department of Cognitive Biology whose research interests include bioacoustics and biolinguistics, specifically the evolution of speech, language and music. In his lecture at the HWK, he will talk about mechanisms how the brain computes language.

Abstract:
Despite intensive study, the neural processing underlying linguistic syntax remains controversial. I will argue that an important reason is a failure to properly analyze linguistic programming from a computational viewpoint. I suggest that from such a computational perspective, traditional distinctions between working memory, phonology and syntax obscure a simpler underlying framework based on commonalities between such traditional domains, and distinctions within them. My proposed framework is based on formal language theory, and suggests that all of phonology and important aspects of syntax are finite state systems involving “lexical” lookup (of words and larger constructions). The underlying neural systems for this are broadly shared with other animals, though human capacity is probably larger. However, the hierarchical component of syntax and semantics requires more powerful computational machinery, with supra-regular processing power, and this is what makes human brains different from those of other animals. This framework leads to two specific and testable hypotheses, the Phonological Continuity hypothesis and the Dendrophilia hypothesis, and I will review data consistent with both hypotheses, a few contrary perspectives, and open questions for future research.

Lecture and discussion from 6:00 pm until approximately 7:00 pm followed by dinner and informal discussion in the HWK Bistro.

The lecture is open to everybody, but registration is required for this event (by replying to ).