The Neuroscience of Language

The Neuroscience of Language (Cambridge University Press) provides an accessible introduction to language and the brain suitable for students in a range of disciplines. I enjoyed writing this book and was intentional about some of the specific features, including:

  • Nearly entirely avoiding in-text parenthetical citations, focusing on big picture ideas (references are given in endnotes);

  • Providing some interesting anecdotes and rabbit holes in endnotes for interested readers;

  • A list of “further reading” for each chapter, pointing towards relevant primary literature;

  • Over 80 illustrations, most of which I created myself. On the downside, I am not an artist. On the upside, there is a consistent style which focuses on major findings. Oh and the figures are available CC-BY from OSF.

Chapters

  1. Introduction: transferring ideas from one brain to another

  2. Methods of cognitive neuroscience

  3. A structural foundation: anatomical considerations and primary brain regions

  4. Speech production: the beginning of the speech chain

  5. Auditory processing: getting sound from the ear to the brain

  6. Speech sounds: phonemes and word forms

  7. Word meanings and concept representations

  8. Combining meaning across words

  9. Additional forms of language communication

  10. Language as a whole-brain enterprise.

More information is available from the publisher.