Looking under the hood at the brain's language system
a year ago
- #language-processing
- #brain-plasticity
- #neuroscience
- Evelina Fedorenko grew up in the former Soviet Union, studying multiple languages, which helped her move to the U.S. and sparked her interest in linguistics.
- She is now an associate professor at MIT, researching brain regions involved in language processing and their development.
- Fedorenko's early work identified precise locations of language-processing regions in the brain, leading to further studies on their functions.
- She explores language development in young children, people with unusual brain architecture, and through computational models like large language models.
- Fedorenko's background includes overcoming financial struggles in Russia, studying abroad, and earning a PhD at MIT with a focus on neuroscience and language.
- Her research has shown that language-processing regions are highly selective and distinct from other cognitive functions like music or social reasoning.
- Recent studies focus on different neuronal populations within language regions and their temporal processing windows.
- The Interesting Brains Project investigates brain plasticity by studying individuals with atypical brain structures who still developed normal language abilities.