This coming Monday, Brian Quintero , from Brain Mechanisms of Language Learning, will be presenting the talk:
Subcortical structures and language learning: link between the cerebellum and basal ganglia with audio motor integration (AMI) process
Impairments of language development often co-occur with motor deficits. The source of this co-occurrence is nevertheless far from understood. The current project aims at this understanding. Current theoretical models acknowledge an important role of audiomotor integration in speech perception. This mechanism could partly explain the link between motor function and learning of word forms but not the deficits in syntactic learning that often accompany developmental language impairments. The accumulated evidence from different lines of research (music, rhythm processing) support a role of the motor system in temporal processing and in particular in rhythm while, in parallel, altered rhythm perception is documented in many language development impairments (i.e. dyslexia, cochlear implants, specific language impairment). Since rhythm is a core property of speech and it influences both speech perception and grammatical processing, this function can be a plausible influence of the motor system on both word and rule learning in language. The current project aims at testing this link specifying the mechanisms and brain regions involved in this interaction. Understanding the basic role of the motor system in language learning is required to address plausible targets for intervention and prevention of developmental language disorders, and to advance in our knowledge of a broader and more essential role of the motor system in language learning.
Location: Online (ZOOM). Click here to join the meeting