ERC Consolidator Grant for Andrea E. Martin

The ERC panel found that ‘the issue of disentangling the role of structure, statistics and the way they interplay in language is still very important’ and thought that ‘DYNALANG has the potential to make breakthrough advances in this respect’.
 

DYNALANG: combining structure and statistics with neural dynamics

Language is a vital aspect of human life. Whether our brains rely more on the structure of language, or on statistics about language, has long been a contentious debate. Our brains keep track of structure (speech sounds, grammar) while also adapting to the statistics of a changing environment (new words, slang, different accents); understanding how we manage both of these types of information is key to discovering how language is encoded in our brains, and figuring out how it is both robust and flexible in our behavior. 

DYNALANG is a new approach that combines the structure and statistics language into a single model by using neural dynamics. In contrast to existing approaches, it hypothesizes that structure and statistics support each other. The project uses MEG and dual-EEG across four distinct languages and behaviors (listening, speaking, multimodal conversation) to build computational models of language based in neural manifolds. 

These models will help us understand how speech and gestures form linguistic representations in the brain. This research will change how we think about language and can impact technology like brain–computer interfaces, medical devices, and artificial intelligence.

About Andrea E. Martin

Andrea E. Martin became a Max Planck Research Group Leader in 2019. The group Language and Computation in Neural Systems (LaCNS) is embedded both at the MPI and at the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging (DCCN). The focus of the group is to understand the computational principles and mechanisms that underlie the representation and processing of human language.

About the ERC Consolidator Grant

The ERC, set up by the European Union in 2007, is the premier European funding organisation for excellent frontier research. It funds creative researchers of any nationality and age, to run projects based across Europe. Are you a scientist who wants to consolidate your independence by establishing a research team and continuing to develop a success career in Europe? Check if the ERC Consolidator Grant could be for you too. Visit Consolidator Grant | ERC for more information.