Each of the projects listed below involves an area of great current
interest in neurolinguistics. For
most of these topics there is quite a bit of literature, so most
of your effort will consist of reviewing and synthesizing this previous
work. I can guide you to some of the relevant
literature, and you may find other items by
using Google Scholar and other sources.
In some cases, with some good thinking, you may be
able to add something meaningful of your own to previous work.
For help in selecting a topic, please consult the course
instructor. In any case, You need to check with him before making your
final selection. If the topic you pick has already been chosen, he may
steer you to another one.
Papers deemed good enough may, after editing,
be added to the Language
and Brain website (with author's permission).
Project Topics.
This is not an exhaustive list. Please
feel free to come up with your own topic. Some of these topics are broad
enough to permit work by two different
students, working with different emphases.
-
Evidence for vowel positions in Wernicke's area.
There is some very intriguing recent imaging work, using MEG, that
finds different positions for different vowels in Wernicke's area, and
the locations of these positions show a correspondence to their
positioning in the traditional vowel quadrilateral. Warning: Some of these
papers are very difficult to understand. What we need is a review and
evaluation. If these findings can be corroborated, they represent a very
important breakthrough.
-
Functions of the angular gyrus.
Previous work
has shown that the angular gyrus at least is involved in reading and in
some aspects of lexical processing and conceptual processing.
It is likely that the
angular gyrus is involved in lexical processing for nouns and perhaps for
adjectives, but not for other things, like verbs.
It would be valuable to pull together the relevant findings
form the literature involving this linguistically important area.
-
Functions of the supramarginal gyrus.
The supramarginal gyrus has been implicated in conduction aphasia, and
it probably has a role in phonology and in some aspects of lexical and
conceptual processing.
It would be very valuable to pull together the relevant findings
form the literature involving this linguistically important area.
-
Functions of the middle temporal gyrus.
This important area seems to be implicated, along with the angular gyrus,
in conceptual information for nouns. It also seems to function as an
extenstion of Wernicke's area for second language phonology in some
bilinguals. It would be good to have a
survey of findings from aphasiology and from imaging studies.
-
Functions of the insula. This large area, in the depths of
the
sylvian fissure, is in the language-processing region, and it has been
implicated in some aphasic disorders. Since it extends from the frontal
lobe to parietal and temporal areas, there are likely to be different
functions for different portions of the insule. It would be good to find
some significant literature relating to this lange
area and try to make some sense of it.
-
Functions of the thalamus relating to language processing. This
vitally important subcortical structure plays an important role in
binding and in temporal coordination of language processing. The authority
in recent
years is R. Llinas of New York University, who has written a lot of stuff
that needs to be reviewed.
-
Grammatical functions of Broca's area. We know that Broca's area is
involved in phonological production and that it also has
syntactic and morphological roles. It would be good to survey some of the
research relating to these roles, particularly to the parcellation of
different functions in different parts of Broca's area.
-
Category dissociations in aphasic disorders.
There are several papers by Caramazza and various coauthors on this topic.
A good synthesis and critical interpretation of this work would be very
valuable.
-
Linguistic functions of the right hemisphere. There is a lot of
literature
available. It would be nice to have a good up-to-date synthesis. This area
is broad enough to permit work by two or three different students, each
with a different emphasis.
-
Anatomical differences between the RH and LH. Can we account for
the
functional differences in terms of differing anatomical details? One
possible difference: the RH may have fewer inhibitory connections.
-
Neuroanatomy of the left temporal lobe. There is a classic
very detailed study by Selden published 25 years ago. For many years
it has been the standard, but by now there may be more recent findings.
A review of both Selden and more recent work would be very helpful.
-
Processing of written language. There is a lot of literature
available on different aspects of this large area. Several different
topics are available. One interesting finding: Chinese
characters are processed largely in the RH, alphabetic characters in the
LH.
-
Music processing. Music resembles language in several important
ways. There is interesting evidence on the brain structures that subserve
music processing from both aphasiology and brain imaging. It would be good
to have a survey.
-
Evidence from cortical probes during neurosurgery. This type of
study was pioneered by Penfield and Roberts in Montreal, and has been
pursued for several years by Dr. Ojemann of the University of Washington
in Seattle. Now some others are also performing experiments of this type,
including Dr. Nitin Tandon of the Texas Mecical Center.
It would be good to have a survey of recent work.
-
Evidence from TMS. So far, not much work has been done using
transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), but there may be enough now to
make it worthwhile to bring together a nice synthesis.
-
Recent research on cortical columns. Work more recent than
Mountcastle's 1998 book.
-
Relevant work of Patricia Kuhl and colleages. She has done some
very interesting work on early language development
-
Information on timing of events in linguistic processing from EEG
studies. For example, the significance of P200 and N400.
-
Cortical representation of 2nd language information.
-
Linguistically relevant aspects of synesthesia.
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