title: Grounding language processing on basic neurophysiological principles.
abstract: In animal models the neural basis of cognitive and executive processes has been studied extensively at various hierarchical levels from microcircuits to distributed functional networks. This work already provides compelling evidence that diverse cognitive functions are based on similar basic neuronal mechanisms. More recent data suggest that even cognitive functions realized only in human brains rely on these canonical neuronal mechanisms. Here we argue that language, like other cognitive functions, depends on distributed computations in specialized cortical areas forming large-scale dynamic networks and examine to what extent empirical results support this view.
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany. Electronic address: friederici@cbs.mpg.de.
authors.forename: Angela D
authors.initials: AD
authors.lastname: Friederici
authors.affiliation: Max Planck Institute for Brain Research, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Ernst Struengmann Institute for Neuroscience in Cooperation with the Max Planck Society, Frankfurt am Main, Germany; Frankfurt Institute for Advanced Studies, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.
authors.forename: Wolf
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Singer
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D009434:Neural Pathways / Q000502:physiology; D009474:Neurons / Q000502:physiology; D010507:Periodicity
keywords: language; neural networks; oscillation