Lecture Series of the Project Group "Language Dynamics Across the Life Span"

Overview, Term plan, requirements for ECTS

Effects of age-related neurological diseases on language function in the brain

Dr. Philipp Kellmeyer (Universität Freiburg)

The neural language system, the large-scale network of brain regions that orchestrates our human-specific capacity for the free expression of concepts, underlies dynamic age- and disease-related changes over the life span. In this lecture, we will examine the role of general age-related changes and specific neurological diseases such as stroke, Parkinson's disease, dementia and others, in disturbing language function in the brain. We start by looking at interesting ontogenic aspects of language development in the brain, such as the myelination of language-related perisylvian areas and the importance of top-down linguistic control. We then relate these developmental features to specific vulnerabilities that are unmasked by normal ageing and neurological diseases later in life, specifically in the aging brain. We will then discuss our remarkable ability as humans to compensate for impaired language function, both brain-based through neural plasticity and the reorganization of function but also via external assisstive devices suchas brain-computer interfaces.