Based on our findings, we have formulated a Neurocognitive Model of Auditory Language Comprehension in the adult (see Friederici, 2002, 2006 & 2009; Friederici & Alter, 2004). This model provides a testable framework for the time course and functional neuroanatomy of syntactic, thematic, lexical as well as sublexical processes. These processes, we argue, form separable networks in the left hemisphere, while prosodic analysis appears firmly rooted in areas of the right hemisphere.

Our research focuses to a great extent on how the processing of syntax in the adult brain interacts with various perceptual domains (auditory, visual), related cognitive domains (e.g. memory) and how its relationship to other linguistic (phonology, prosody) and non-linguistic domains (e.g. emotion, gesture, music) can be pinpointed.

All projects aim to specify the temporal, functional, as well as structural connections between key (temporal, frontal, subcortical) brain areas and to contribute to a refined understanding of the hierarchical pathways of language, which is a stronghold of our research agenda.

Publications

Friederici, A.D. (2002). Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence processing. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6, 78-84. Fulltext

Friederici, A.D. (2006). Broca's area and the ventral premotor cortex in language: Functional differentiation and specificity. Cortex, 42, 472-475. Fulltext

Friederici, A.D. (2009). Pathways to language: Fiber tracts in the human brain. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 175-181. Fulltext