Grey Matters: Understanding Language

Why are humans the only species to have language? Is there something special about our brains? Are there genes that have evolved for language? In this talk, Jeff Elman, UCSD professor of cognitive science and co-director of the Kavli Institute for Brain and Mind, discusses some of the exciting new research that helps us understand what it is about human language that is so different from other animals' communication systems, and what about our biology might make language possible. Series: "Grey Matters" [7/2006] [Science] [Show ID: 11187]

Category:

Education

Tags:

• brain
• development
• Grey
• Matters
• language
• neurology

[mrwellings]

Nice to see some linguistic topics being screened more on youtube (Y)

[TimeLordCat]

Enjoyed the lecture and subject matter.

[maddogblum]

Birds, chimps, small mammals, whales, dolphins, porpoises to name a few types of animals with language

[Mike2008and2008]

Why do Humans not understand the language of the flora and fauna around them? Ya..language. Open your mind.

[nice888you]

Yes- the brain is a communication system- operating in all life.

[nice888you]

Each animal including human have a different ability to communicate- but they all commuicate. Because we understand our form of communication more than we understand other animals forms of communication we consider our form of commuication superior. I understand what you are getting at never the less, we build machines and the like but this is largely due to only a few people work that has spread through communication, it is not that we are superiorly intelligent- good work, I enjoyed it.

[Redshift313]

Animal communication primarily conveys the "Emotions" of the individual of the species in question... where as, Human communication can convey information about the external world and/or the emotions behind it. Although, humans in general are in fact relaying emotions rather then information about the external world... Ethics, Sports, Politics and Aesthetics, are categories where people believe that they are expressing something other then "How They Feel" about it... i.e., E-motivating.

[TheVikingElvis]

I'd be really curious as to whether the overlap images at 33:02 work with the deaf who use signed languages...

[tomatotrix]

Very interesting and awesome that you guys are showing some presentations! Thank you I have learned a lot!

[rysw19]

the reason areas the chess master uses for the end game of a game of chess which are different from that of the non-expert is because once you're familiar with the game, the end game is pretty routine. by then the variety of possible moves is dramatically decreased. it could be also, like he says, that they have found how to isolate those useful areas of the brain during this stage, but it seems more likely that they are relying more on memory than computation.

[Dinakara777]

Impressive, competent!

[sofia123541]

Well we've been talking for a longtime now.