- Science: News focus on evolution of language (coverage of EVOLANG)
- SD: Between ear and brain, an orderly orchestra of synapses
- BBC: Gorillas use 'baby talk' gestures (with video)
- Nat Geo: Gorillas seen using 'baby talk' gestures - a first (with video)
- SD: How brain performs 'motor chunking' tasks
Thursday, June 28, 2012
Recently in the headlines
Thursday, June 14, 2012
Call for papers: Workshop on Advances in Biolinguistics
Workshop: Advances in Biolinguistics
Date: 22-Jul-2013 - 27-Jul-2013
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Contact Person: Anna Maria Di Sciullo
This workshop focuses on advances on the understanding of the biological basis of language (Lenneberg 1967, Jenkins 2000, 2004, Chomsky 2002, 2005, 2011, Piattelli-Palmarini et al. 2009, Larson et al 2010, Di Sciullo et al. 2010, Di Sciullo and Boeckx 2011). The workshop invites discussions where specific biolinguistic hypotheses are substantiated by theoretical linguistics evidence, empirical data and biological/natural world evidence. The workshop includes the following thematic sessions:
1. Language and biology
2. Language typology and language universals
3. The effects of natural laws
Session 1: Language and biology, addresses the question of how studies in language and genetics, language and the brain contribute to our understanding of the nature of syntax, morphology, the lexicon, and their interfaces with the other cognitive systems.
Session 2: Language typology and language universals, considers how biolinguistic studies on language evolution and variation shed new light on language typology, and the study of language universals. The questions raised in this session are the following: how is variation and change in the natural world related to language variation and change, and how the biolinguistic perspective may lead to new approaches to language typology and universals.
Session 3: The effects of natural laws, discusses recent proposals on the effect of natural laws, such as prominence, symmetry breaking, reaction-diffusion, preservation of shape etc. on language derivations and representations, on language variation and evolution, and on language acquisition. How do these laws interact with natural language?
The invited speakers are Lyle Jenkins, Angela Friederici, and Giuseppe Longobardi.
See the workshop website for the call for papers (abstracts due 15 July 2012).
Date: 22-Jul-2013 - 27-Jul-2013
Location: Geneva, Switzerland
Contact Person: Anna Maria Di Sciullo
This workshop focuses on advances on the understanding of the biological basis of language (Lenneberg 1967, Jenkins 2000, 2004, Chomsky 2002, 2005, 2011, Piattelli-Palmarini et al. 2009, Larson et al 2010, Di Sciullo et al. 2010, Di Sciullo and Boeckx 2011). The workshop invites discussions where specific biolinguistic hypotheses are substantiated by theoretical linguistics evidence, empirical data and biological/natural world evidence. The workshop includes the following thematic sessions:
1. Language and biology
2. Language typology and language universals
3. The effects of natural laws
Session 1: Language and biology, addresses the question of how studies in language and genetics, language and the brain contribute to our understanding of the nature of syntax, morphology, the lexicon, and their interfaces with the other cognitive systems.
Session 2: Language typology and language universals, considers how biolinguistic studies on language evolution and variation shed new light on language typology, and the study of language universals. The questions raised in this session are the following: how is variation and change in the natural world related to language variation and change, and how the biolinguistic perspective may lead to new approaches to language typology and universals.
Session 3: The effects of natural laws, discusses recent proposals on the effect of natural laws, such as prominence, symmetry breaking, reaction-diffusion, preservation of shape etc. on language derivations and representations, on language variation and evolution, and on language acquisition. How do these laws interact with natural language?
The invited speakers are Lyle Jenkins, Angela Friederici, and Giuseppe Longobardi.
See the workshop website for the call for papers (abstracts due 15 July 2012).
Saturday, June 9, 2012
Videos from Evolang 9
Videos of the plenary lectures from the recent Evolang9 conference in Kyoto are now available online at:
http://ocw.kyoto-u.ac.jp/international-conference-en/31
The videos of the Kyoto Conference on Biolinguistics are also now available at:
http://ocw.kyoto-u.ac.jp/international-conference-en/30
http://ocw.kyoto-u.ac.jp/international-conference-en/31
The videos of the Kyoto Conference on Biolinguistics are also now available at:
http://ocw.kyoto-u.ac.jp/international-conference-en/30
(via Evolutionary Linguistics)
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Recently in the headlines
- SD: Monkey lip smacks provide new insights into the evolution of human speech
- SD: Extra gene drove instant leap in human brain evolution
- SD: Songbirds' learning hub in brain offers insight into motor control
- SD: Gestures fulfill a big role in language
- NS: Bilingual brain boost: two tongues, two minds
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Recently in the headlines
- BBC: The rock hyrax surprises with its syntax skills
- BBC: Speech lab: unlocking the secrets of the human voice (with speech jammer video)
- NYT: The Living Word by Peter Ludlow
- SD: Bilingualism fine-tunes hearing, enhances attention
- NS: 'Cocktail party effect' identified in the brain
- NS: Baboons and 4-letter words point to the origins of reading
- SD: Tackling dyslexia before kids learn to read
- SD: Game changer for evolutionary theory?
- SD: Sparrows change their tune to be heard in noisy cities
- NS: Mapping the language minefield for kids with autism
Monday, April 16, 2012
Call for papers: Neurobiology of Language Conference
Neurobiology of Language Conference
San Sebastian, Spain, October 25-27, 2012
Abstracts due June 25, 2012
Further info: http://www.neurolang.org/submissions/
San Sebastian, Spain, October 25-27, 2012
Abstracts due June 25, 2012
Further info: http://www.neurolang.org/submissions/
Keynote Sessions
Barbara K. Finlay
Beyond columns and areas: developmental gradients and regionalization of the neocortex and their likely consequences for functional organization.
Barb Finlay is a Professor of Psychology, Cornell University. Professor Finlay holds the William R. Kenan Chair of Psychology and is co-Editor of Brain and Behavioral Sciences. Finlay is an expert on the evolution and development of sensory systems and the cerebral cortex.
Nikos K. Logothetis
In vivo Connectivity: Paramagnetic Tracers, Electrical Stimulation & Neural-Event Triggered fMRI
Nikos Logothetis is the Director of the Department of Cognitive Processes at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics, Tubingen, Germany. Logothetis is well known for his studies of the physiological mechanisms underlying visual perception and object recognition as well as his more recent work on measurements of how the functional magnetic resonance imaging signal relate to neural activity. Logothetis will talk to us on:
Panel Discussions
Nina F. Dronkers vs Julius Fridriksson
What is the role of the insula in speech and language?
Nina Dronkers is the Director of the Center for Aphasia and Related Disorders, and Adjunct Professor of Neurology and Language, U.C. Davis, California. Dronkers is an expert in the Aphasia and more generally the cerebral localization of language.
Julius Fridriksson is a Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders, University of South Carolina, and Director of the Aphasia Laboratory, UNC. Fridriksson is well known for his work in aphasia – neuroimaging and treatment.
Matthew Lambon Ralph vs Jeffrey R. Binder
Role of Angular Gyrus in Semantic Processing
Matt Lambon Ralph is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Associate Vice-President Research, University of Manchester, U.K. His lab uses neuropsychology, computational modeling, TMS, and functional neuroimaging to investigage semantic memory, language, recovery, rehabilitation, and neuroplasticity.
Jeffrey Binder, M.D. is a Professor of Neurology at the Medical College of Wisconsin and Director of the Language Imaging Laboratory. Professor Binder has made important contributions on the neural basis of language (esp. speech and word recognition) and is the incoming president of SNL.
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Call for papers: From Grooming to Speaking
From Grooming to Speaking
Date: 10-Sep-2012 - 11-Sep-2012
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact Person: Nathalie Gontier
Web Site: http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/linhas_investigacao/Philosophy%20of%20Life%20Sciences/int_col/index.htm
Call Deadline: 30-Jun-2012
Meeting Description:
The Centre for Philosophy of Science of the Faculty of Science of the Portuguese University of Lisbon is organizing a 2-day international colloquium entitled 'From Grooming to Speaking: Recent Trends in social Primatology and Human Ethology', on September 10-11, 2012.
Plenary talks will be given by:
Johan Bolhuis
Augusta Gaspar
Nathalie Gontier
Mary Lee Jensvold
Simone Pika
Tim Racine
Jordan Zlatev
More tba
Organizing Committee:
Nathalie Gontier (chair), Dutch Free University of Brussels, Belgium
Olga Pombo, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Call for Papers:
Deadline for submissions is June 30, 2012.
We call for primatologists, ethologists, anthropologists, sociobiologists, evolutionary, cognitive and comparative psychologists, biolinguists, evolutionary linguists, bio-ethicists, philosophers and historians of science, to provide talks on:
(1) Historical reviews on the introduction and use of primate studies to acquire knowledge on the origin and evolution of communication and language
- The rise of comparative psychology, ethology, primatology, sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, evolutionary linguistics, and evolutionary anthropology
- Cross-fostering experiments, experiments that had as goal to learn non-human primates to talk or sign, or to learn artificial languages such as Yerkes
- The shifts from behaviorism and instructionism to cognitivism and selectionism
- The nature/culture debate
- The innate/acquired debate
- The continuity/discontinuity debate
(2) Methodologies of primate communication and language research
- Which research methodologies combine and diversify ethologists, primatologists, sociobiologists, anthropologists, evolutionary psychologists and evolutionary linguists? (ASL and Yerkes experiments; instructionist, behavioral versus selectionist, adaptationist approaches; the use and disuse of Tinbergen's 4 questions in ethology; how to study ultimate and proximate causes of behavior)
- Did classic ethology and comparative psychology, with its focus on instructionist and behaviorist methodologies, fail? Did the cognitive turn succeed in providing answers there were behaviorism failed? And is selection theory able to provide answers to questions neither ethologists nor cognitivists could?
- Which methodologies are used to study (human) primate verbal and non-verbal communication strategies in wild, captive, and natural settings (how are experiments set up, how are biases controlled, how is data collected and interpreted, how are theories formed)?
- How do ontogenetic studies of normal and pathological behavior lend insight into phylogeny (what aspects of development enable or disable scientists to draw inferences on human evolution, what's the rationale behind comparative research, how do pathologies lend insight, either into normal development, or into the evolutionary past of hominins)?
- How do the primate and ethological research methodologies differ from, relate to, or complement genetic and neurological research?
(3) Theories on primate communication and the evolution of language
- Gestural versus vocal origin theories (grooming as gossip theories, mirror neurons, non-verbal communication theories (including facial expressions, pointing and gestural research), co-verbal gesturing theories, signing theories, mimesis, imitation)
- Evolutionary theories on language as a social communication device
- Theory of Mind versus embodiment theory, in human and non-human primates
- Theories on learning (conditioning, observational learning, imitation)
- Theories on cultural transmission (chimpanzee, bonobo and human cultures)
- Which theoretical frameworks and evolutionary mechanisms enable adequate explanations on language evolution (natural selection, drift, systems theory, the Baldwin and ratchet effect, co-evolutionary theories, dual inheritance theories)
(4) Ethical issues in social primatology and human ethology
- Policy and guidelines on (human) primate studies in the wild, under captivity, or under experimental conditions
- Animal rights (e.g. if non-human primates have ToM, do we need to attribute them legal rights, does the concept of 'legal person' apply to non-human primates)
- The role and responsibility of researchers
Much more than provide a platform for the dissemination of new research results, the conference organizers will give preference to reflexive talks that deal with theoretical, methodological and ethical issues of primate research and ethology, and how the latter fields provide insight into human language evolution.
Proceedings:
A selection of talks will be published in an anthology for the Springer Book Series 'Interdisciplinary Evolution Research'. Editors-in-chief of the series are Nathalie Gontier and Olga Pombo.
Submission guidelines can be found at:
http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/linhas_investigacao/Philosophy%20of%20Life%20Sciences/int_col/call.htm
Scientific Committee:
Luc Faucher, UQAM, Candada
Nathalie Gontier, Free University of Brussels, Belgium (chair)
David Leavens, University of Sussex, UK
Robert Lickliter, Florida International University, US
Mark Nelissen, University of Antwerp, Belgium
James Steele, University College London, UK
Ian Tattersall, American Museum of Natural History, NY
Natalie Uomini, University of Liverpool, UK
Arie Verhagen, University of Leiden, the Netherlands
Date: 10-Sep-2012 - 11-Sep-2012
Location: Lisbon, Portugal
Contact Person: Nathalie Gontier
Web Site: http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/linhas_investigacao/Philosophy%20of%20Life%20Sciences/int_col/index.htm
Call Deadline: 30-Jun-2012
Meeting Description:
The Centre for Philosophy of Science of the Faculty of Science of the Portuguese University of Lisbon is organizing a 2-day international colloquium entitled 'From Grooming to Speaking: Recent Trends in social Primatology and Human Ethology', on September 10-11, 2012.
Plenary talks will be given by:
Johan Bolhuis
Augusta Gaspar
Nathalie Gontier
Mary Lee Jensvold
Simone Pika
Tim Racine
Jordan Zlatev
More tba
Organizing Committee:
Nathalie Gontier (chair), Dutch Free University of Brussels, Belgium
Olga Pombo, Center for Philosophy of Science, University of Lisbon, Portugal
Call for Papers:
Deadline for submissions is June 30, 2012.
We call for primatologists, ethologists, anthropologists, sociobiologists, evolutionary, cognitive and comparative psychologists, biolinguists, evolutionary linguists, bio-ethicists, philosophers and historians of science, to provide talks on:
(1) Historical reviews on the introduction and use of primate studies to acquire knowledge on the origin and evolution of communication and language
- The rise of comparative psychology, ethology, primatology, sociobiology, evolutionary psychology, evolutionary linguistics, and evolutionary anthropology
- Cross-fostering experiments, experiments that had as goal to learn non-human primates to talk or sign, or to learn artificial languages such as Yerkes
- The shifts from behaviorism and instructionism to cognitivism and selectionism
- The nature/culture debate
- The innate/acquired debate
- The continuity/discontinuity debate
(2) Methodologies of primate communication and language research
- Which research methodologies combine and diversify ethologists, primatologists, sociobiologists, anthropologists, evolutionary psychologists and evolutionary linguists? (ASL and Yerkes experiments; instructionist, behavioral versus selectionist, adaptationist approaches; the use and disuse of Tinbergen's 4 questions in ethology; how to study ultimate and proximate causes of behavior)
- Did classic ethology and comparative psychology, with its focus on instructionist and behaviorist methodologies, fail? Did the cognitive turn succeed in providing answers there were behaviorism failed? And is selection theory able to provide answers to questions neither ethologists nor cognitivists could?
- Which methodologies are used to study (human) primate verbal and non-verbal communication strategies in wild, captive, and natural settings (how are experiments set up, how are biases controlled, how is data collected and interpreted, how are theories formed)?
- How do ontogenetic studies of normal and pathological behavior lend insight into phylogeny (what aspects of development enable or disable scientists to draw inferences on human evolution, what's the rationale behind comparative research, how do pathologies lend insight, either into normal development, or into the evolutionary past of hominins)?
- How do the primate and ethological research methodologies differ from, relate to, or complement genetic and neurological research?
(3) Theories on primate communication and the evolution of language
- Gestural versus vocal origin theories (grooming as gossip theories, mirror neurons, non-verbal communication theories (including facial expressions, pointing and gestural research), co-verbal gesturing theories, signing theories, mimesis, imitation)
- Evolutionary theories on language as a social communication device
- Theory of Mind versus embodiment theory, in human and non-human primates
- Theories on learning (conditioning, observational learning, imitation)
- Theories on cultural transmission (chimpanzee, bonobo and human cultures)
- Which theoretical frameworks and evolutionary mechanisms enable adequate explanations on language evolution (natural selection, drift, systems theory, the Baldwin and ratchet effect, co-evolutionary theories, dual inheritance theories)
(4) Ethical issues in social primatology and human ethology
- Policy and guidelines on (human) primate studies in the wild, under captivity, or under experimental conditions
- Animal rights (e.g. if non-human primates have ToM, do we need to attribute them legal rights, does the concept of 'legal person' apply to non-human primates)
- The role and responsibility of researchers
Much more than provide a platform for the dissemination of new research results, the conference organizers will give preference to reflexive talks that deal with theoretical, methodological and ethical issues of primate research and ethology, and how the latter fields provide insight into human language evolution.
Proceedings:
A selection of talks will be published in an anthology for the Springer Book Series 'Interdisciplinary Evolution Research'. Editors-in-chief of the series are Nathalie Gontier and Olga Pombo.
Submission guidelines can be found at:
http://cfcul.fc.ul.pt/linhas_investigacao/Philosophy%20of%20Life%20Sciences/int_col/call.htm
Scientific Committee:
Luc Faucher, UQAM, Candada
Nathalie Gontier, Free University of Brussels, Belgium (chair)
David Leavens, University of Sussex, UK
Robert Lickliter, Florida International University, US
Mark Nelissen, University of Antwerp, Belgium
James Steele, University College London, UK
Ian Tattersall, American Museum of Natural History, NY
Natalie Uomini, University of Liverpool, UK
Arie Verhagen, University of Leiden, the Netherlands
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