Brainlanguage

Brainlanguage is an interdisciplinary concept that studies how the brain supports language, including how linguistic structure is represented, processed, learned, and produced in neural systems. It combines insights from neuroscience, linguistics, psychology, and computer science to understand language across modalities and populations, from infancy to adulthood and across organ systems.

The field examines neural networks involved in language, how these networks develop, how bilingualism or multilingualism alters processing, and how language function can be supported or restored after brain injury. It also considers sign languages and other nonspoken forms of communication, as well as how language interacts with memory, attention, and other cognitive functions.

Core neural architecture centers on the left perisylvian language network, including Broca's area in the inferior frontal gyrus and Wernicke's area in the posterior temporal lobe, connected by dorsal and ventral pathways such as the arcuate fasciculus and related white matter tracts. While language is often left-lateralized, right hemisphere regions contribute to prosody, discourse, and pragmatic aspects, with widespread involvement of domain-general networks during complex language tasks and recovery after injury.

Methods used in brainlanguage research include functional and structural neuroimaging (fMRI, diffusion MRI), electrophysiology (EEG, MEG), noninvasive stimulation (TMS, tDCS), and lesion studies, complemented by computational modeling to simulate neural and linguistic processes.

Applications span clinical assessment and rehabilitation of aphasia, educational approaches for language learning, and the development of brain–computer interfaces to aid communication for individuals with severe language impairments. The field faces challenges related to individual and cross-language variability, sign language differences, methodological limits, and ethical considerations surrounding privacy and cognitive enhancement.