理论与方法专栏 | Human Language - From Genes and Brains to Behavior
《理论语言学五道口站》（2020年第19期，总第83期）理论与方法专栏为大家推荐荷兰拉德堡德大学唐德斯认知神经成像中心主任 Peter Hagoort 2019年在The MIT Press出版的著作：Human Language - From Genes and Brains to Behavior.
著作简介
Language is not only one of the most complex cognitive functions that we command, it is also the aspect of the mind that makes us uniquely human. Research suggests that the human brain exhibits a language readiness not found in the brains of other species. This volume brings together contributions from a range of fields to examine humans' language capacity from multiple perspectives, analyzing it at genetic, neurobiological, psychological, and linguistic levels.In recent decades, advances in computational modeling, neuroimaging, and genetic sequencing have made possible new approaches to the study of language, and the contributors draw on these developments. The book examines cognitive architectures, investigating the functional organization of the major language skills; learning and development trajectories, summarizing the current understanding of the steps and neurocognitive mechanisms in language processing; evolutionary and other preconditions for communication by means of natural language; computational tools for modeling language; cognitive neuroscientific methods that allow observations of the human brain in action, including fMRI, EEG/MEG, and others; the neural infrastructure of language capacity; the genome's role in building and maintaining the language-ready brain; and insights from studying such language-relevant behaviors in nonhuman animals as birdsong and primate vocalization.
实验研究表明，人脑天生具备“语言”基础。语言作为独特的认知载体和心智映像，使人类在动物中脱颖而出。近世纪，计算建模、神经成像和基因测序等技术的进步极大推动了语言研究的发展。本书将从遗传学、神经生物学、心理学和语言学等视角综合探析人类语言能力，其内容包括：
1. 从认知结构入手，深入摸索语言技能本质；
2. 紧跟前人步伐，总结前人有关语言处理的神经机制研究；
3. 以自然语言为基准，预测影响语言交流的有关条件；
4. 利用计算机技术，建立语言模型假设；
5. 采用认知神经科学方法，观察人脑活动；其技术包括：fMRI（functional magnetic resonance imaging) 功能磁共振成像、EEG （electroencephalo-graph）脑电图、MEG (magnetoencephalography) 和脑磁图等。
6. 探索“语言能力”的神经结构；
7. 寻找“基因组”在构建、维持大脑语言活动的作用；
8. 研究人类之外的“语言现象”，如鸟鸣和灵长类动物啼叫。
作者简介
Peter Hagoort is Director of the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging at the Radboud University, Nijmegen, the Netherlands. His own research interests relate to the domain of the human language faculty and how it is instantiated in the brain.
Peter Hagoort，马克斯·普朗克心理语言学研究所主任及认知神经科学教授、 拉德堡德大学（位于荷兰奈梅亨市）唐德斯认知神经成像中心主任。主要研究领域为人类语言能力和人脑语言实例研究。
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编辑：田英慧 王秋梅
排版：王秋梅 安镜儒
审校：王丽媛 陈旭