Resenha Crítica: Review of Grounding language Processing on basic neurophysiological principles by Friederici and Singer (2015)

Abstract

In this didactic and information-packed article by Friederici and Singer (2015), entitled Grounding language processing on basic neurophysiological principles, the authors propose to investigate the generality of these principles. For this purpose language is the ultimate test case because if it proves to rely, in essence, on these basic neuronal mechanisms, as other cognitive systems have proven to do, it makes a pretty strong case. It would mean that even cognitive functions unique to the human species, such as language, are amenable to comparison not only to other cognitive functions within humans, but also to neuronal circuitry we find in other species. This would open up a host of new and exciting possibilities for research. In this paper, the authors offer a wide variety of empirical evidence for the dependence of language on distributed computations in specialized cortical areas forming large-scale dynamic networks. As such, their operating basics seem indeed similar to those in other cognitive functions as well as other species. In this review, I will first elaborate on their main argument, and subsequently, I will discuss each principle proposed and elaborate on examples presented by the authors, as well as contribute with new examples.

DOI: 10.17074/2238-975X.2015v11n1p7