0:00:00.000,0:00:03.124 [Miracles of Human Language[br]An Introduction to Linguistics] 0:00:03.124,0:00:05.964 [Module 5: Language in the brain[br]Video 1: Introduction] 0:00:06.804,0:00:12.489 Hi, and welcome to the fifth module of our[br]course on The Miracles of Human Language, 0:00:12.918,0:00:14.915 a module on Language in the Brain. 0:00:15.656,0:00:18.714 And this module has been made possible[br]partly by crowdfunding. 0:00:18.715,0:00:22.104 Many of you have contributed [br]to make another module 0:00:22.104,0:00:23.793 and many thanks to all of you: 0:00:24.731,0:00:29.902 a module about language in the brain, [br]that's what we're going to talk about now. 0:00:30.506,0:00:33.208 For instance, in this video, [br]this introductory video, 0:00:33.208,0:00:35.282 where I'm going to give you [br]some background info 0:00:35.282,0:00:38.630 and I'm going to explain you more [br]about what we do in the other videos. 0:00:39.577,0:00:42.981 Back in the first module, we established[br]that language is normally found 0:00:42.981,0:00:44.979 in all human beings. 0:00:45.708,0:00:48.423 And then we have looked at language[br]from many different sides 0:00:48.423,0:00:52.589 and give many different examples of,[br]let's say, the software of language. 0:00:52.589,0:00:55.154 And now we're going to look [br]at the hardware of language 0:00:55.154,0:00:58.636 the hardware which is mostly in our brain. 0:00:59.687,0:01:03.610 So the questions which we're going to ask [br]is what happens in our heads, 0:01:03.610,0:01:07.833 so that we can make and [br]that we can understand language? 0:01:08.740,0:01:11.409 Which are the parts of the brain [br]which enable this? 0:01:12.034,0:01:14.429 And how do these parts work together? 0:01:15.352,0:01:17.316 What happens if something goes wrong? 0:01:17.886,0:01:20.513 And how does reading work? 0:01:23.386,0:01:26.811 We can learn a lot about language [br]by studying the brain. 0:01:26.811,0:01:29.356 The brain is definitely [br]the most important organ, 0:01:29.356,0:01:34.571 maybe for us humans in general, [br]but especially also for language. 0:01:35.126,0:01:37.568 And there are two schools of thought[br]about the relation 0:01:37.568,0:01:41.272 between the brain and language [br]and the way in which they developed. 0:01:41.952,0:01:46.213 You can either think that language --[br]the way languages work -- 0:01:46.213,0:01:50.948 has been influenced by the brain: [br]the brain has made the language. 0:01:52.532,0:01:57.243 So languages are the way they are because [br]our brains happen to be the way they are. 0:01:57.790,0:02:00.685 But you can also think that the relation[br]is the other way around, 0:02:00.685,0:02:05.197 that our brains have adapted over [br]the course of tens of thousands of years 0:02:05.197,0:02:08.330 to the fact that we are using language. 0:02:08.670,0:02:10.663 And maybe both of them are right. 0:02:12.342,0:02:15.238 Now, how do we study this? [br]How are we going to find out? 0:02:15.843,0:02:19.667 The problem with the brain is that [br]you cannot just ask your informants: 0:02:19.667,0:02:21.275 "How does your brain work?" 0:02:21.838,0:02:23.723 You can also not feel it for yourself: 0:02:23.723,0:02:26.016 "How does my brain work?[br]I don't feel anything." 0:02:26.524,0:02:28.187 So we have to find another way. 0:02:29.285,0:02:34.053 Now, remember Labov; Labov said you can[br]study language in many different places: 0:02:34.053,0:02:36.791 you can study it in the library, [br]you can study it in the closet, 0:02:36.791,0:02:38.264 you can study it on the street -- 0:02:39.000,0:02:41.062 but you can also study it in the lab. 0:02:41.470,0:02:43.127 And that's what we're going to do now, 0:02:43.127,0:02:47.672 we're going to go to the lab [br]to study images of the brain, 0:02:48.014,0:02:51.538 like so-called MRI pictures,[br]such as this one, 0:02:51.882,0:02:55.718 which give us insight into [br]the workings of the brain 0:02:55.718,0:02:58.121 while we are using language. 0:02:58.890,0:03:03.236 And we are going to see [br]more machines later. 0:03:07.252,0:03:09.697 There are two subdisciplines [br]of linguistics 0:03:09.697,0:03:11.125 studying language in the brain. 0:03:11.868,0:03:15.638 They are called psycholinguistics[br]and neurolinguistics. 0:03:16.900,0:03:21.220 Psycholinguistics looks at [br]language in the brain, let's say, 0:03:21.220,0:03:24.108 from the outside, by studying[br]the behavior of people 0:03:24.969,0:03:28.927 and neurolinguistics looks at [br]language in the brain from the inside, 0:03:28.927,0:03:31.115 by looking at the brain itself. 0:03:32.390,0:03:35.811 Psycholinguistics is the older of the two. 0:03:36.693,0:03:41.717 It started in th 19th century, with[br]psychologists doing small experiments, 0:03:41.717,0:03:43.868 like asking people to say [br]a difficult sentence 0:03:43.868,0:03:47.395 and then trying to observe [br]what they actually said 0:03:48.559,0:03:51.028 or by studying diaries of mothers 0:03:51.784,0:03:55.912 who were registering the language [br]development of their children 0:03:56.378,0:04:00.341 or diaries of doctors who had patients [br]with some kind of brain problem, 0:04:00.341,0:04:05.182 which seemed to cause problems with [br]using language or understanding language. 0:04:05.980,0:04:11.057 And those are still the kinds of topics [br]which psycholinguistics studies today. 0:04:11.879,0:04:15.313 So, language development, [br]language comprehension 0:04:15.323,0:04:16.988 and language production. 0:04:18.471,0:04:22.551 To some extent, those same topics are [br]studied by neurolinguistics, 0:04:22.551,0:04:26.543 but now from the inside, [br]by looking into the brain, 0:04:26.543,0:04:30.311 by asking people to listen to a word [br]and then make a brain scan 0:04:30.311,0:04:35.721 while they are doing so, and in this way,[br]neurolinguists try to find out 0:04:36.100,0:04:39.605 where language is in the brain and [br]which parts of the brain are used 0:04:39.605,0:04:42.518 for producing and understanding language. 0:04:43.920,0:04:47.859 Slowly, these two disciplines [br]are merging together. 0:04:48.161,0:04:49.966 They used to be separate, basically, 0:04:49.966,0:04:54.279 because if you would put people into [br]a brain scanner, it was very difficult 0:04:54.279,0:04:56.534 to ask them to do complicated things. 0:04:56.991,0:04:59.212 But these brain scanners become lighter 0:04:59.212,0:05:02.797 and we can now ask people to do tasks[br]in the brain scanner, 0:05:02.797,0:05:08.109 and then we get something which is really[br]in-between psycho- and neurolinguistics. 0:05:11.038,0:05:12.178 Here's a warning. 0:05:12.968,0:05:16.787 In this module, there's going to be [br]less variation in languages 0:05:17.185,0:05:19.550 than in our other modules. 0:05:20.518,0:05:24.264 And the reasons for this are, [br]yet again, the machines. 0:05:24.582,0:05:29.929 The machines are big, are expensive,[br]and therefore, we typically find them 0:05:29.929,0:05:31.902 in Western countries. 0:05:32.568,0:05:35.472 They become smaller, [br]they become less expensive 0:05:35.472,0:05:38.775 and other countries are now also[br]investing in them, 0:05:38.775,0:05:44.621 so we will get more information,[br]hopefully, about how other languages work. 0:05:44.621,0:05:49.015 But so far, we just have to assume that[br]the brains of all people 0:05:49.015,0:05:52.890 work in the same way when using language. 0:05:54.511,0:05:59.532 Now, in the next video, we are going[br]to look deeper into the brain. 0:05:59.768,0:06:06.035 We're going to study how your brain works[br]when you are listening or speaking, 0:06:06.035,0:06:08.075 when you are using language. 0:06:08.075,0:06:11.460 [Sources:[br]MRI T2 Brain axial image.jpg[br]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:MRI_T2_Brain_axial_image.jpg[br]Warning icon.png[br]https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Warning_icon.png] 0:06:11.460,0:06:12.441 [Miracles of Human Language[br]An Introduction to Linguistics] 0:06:12.441,0:06:14.273 [This video by Leiden University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlik 3.0 Netherlands License (see https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/nl/deed.en_US). Contact: mooc@cdh.leidenuniv.nl]