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Researchers Report Decoding Thoughts from fMRI Data
A method appears to be the first to noninvasively reconstruct language from brain activity.
Researchers Report Decoding Thoughts from fMRI Data
Researchers Report Decoding Thoughts from fMRI Data

A method appears to be the first to noninvasively reconstruct language from brain activity.

A method appears to be the first to noninvasively reconstruct language from brain activity.

language, neuroscience

Ursula Bellugi smiling for the camera wearing a purple shirt in 2015
Ursula Bellugi, Leading Sign Language Neuroscientist, Dies at 91
Lisa Winter | May 11, 2022 | 3 min read
Her research showed that communication via sign language is as neurologically complex as spoken language. 
Photo of wooden block letters
Distracted Brains Better at Parsing Unfamiliar Languages: Study
Catherine Offord | Apr 4, 2022 | 2 min read
People who had cognitive functions depleted by noninvasive brain stimulation or a mentally demanding task could subconsciously recognize individual words in a made-up language more easily than controls, researchers find.
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A Way with Words: Using Genomics to Dispel Stuttering Myths
The Scientist | 1 min read
Filling in the gaps about the genetic risk factors of stuttering may help scientists shatter stigmas and discover new therapies.
Trixie Gardner (left) and Allen Gardner (right) spend time interacting with Washoe (center).
R. Allen Gardner, Who Taught Chimps to Sign, Dies at 91
Lisa Winter | Oct 5, 2021 | 2 min read
Gardner famously claimed to have taught chimpanzees to communicate with people using American Sign Language by raising them as if they were human children.
Conceptual image of numbers
Is Your Brain Wired for Numbers?
Catherine Offord | Oct 1, 2021 | 10+ min read
Our perception of quantity, separate from counting or estimation of magnitude more generally, is foundational to human cognition, according to some neuroscientists.
One white mouse with red eyes runs on a blue exercise wheel, while another mouse stands with front paws on the wheel
Serious Infections Linked to Autism: Study
Abby Olena, PhD | Sep 17, 2021 | 5 min read
In both a mouse model and the hospital records of more than 3 million children, researchers found a connection between strong immune activation in males and later symptoms of autism spectrum disorder.
hemispherectomy epilepsy fmri brain neural connections
Missing Brain Hemisphere Tied to Fortified Neural Networks
Kerry Grens | Nov 20, 2019 | 2 min read
A small study finds that patients who had half their brains removed to treat epilepsy have stronger neural networks than controls, perhaps explaining how they can retain language and cognition skills.
The Brain Interprets Spoken and Written Language the Same Way
Catherine Offord | Nov 1, 2019 | 2 min read
Neural activity associated with the meaning of words is independent of whether those words are read or listened to, a study finds.
mri fmri neuroscience genetics cognition
Replication Refutes Study Linking Neuroimaging to Genetics
Emma Yasinski | Sep 30, 2019 | 3 min read
The original experiment found brain activity as measured by fMRI was tied to particular genetic variants.
abc stroke perinatal language development
Kids’ Brains Remarkably Plastic After Stroke
Ashley P. Taylor | Aug 23, 2019 | 5 min read
A small study reports that, among children who had left-hemisphere damage as newborns, the complementary region of the right hemisphere appears to compensate and protect language development.
Dialogue Improves Children’s Learning Abilities
Sukanya Charuchandra | Nov 1, 2018 | 3 min read
Regardless of parental income and education, children who engage in more two-way conversation with their parents learn better.

Why Human Speech Is Special
Philip Lieberman | Jul 1, 2018 | 10+ min read
Evolutionary changes in both the vocal tract and the brain were necessary for humans’ remarkable gift of gab.
The Wada Test, 1948
Phil Jaekl | Nov 1, 2017 | 2 min read
A decades-old neurological procedure developed under unique and difficult conditions in postwar Japan remains critical to the treatment of epilepsy.
Singing In the Brain
Anna Azvolinsky | Mar 1, 2017 | 9 min read
His first love was dance, but Erich Jarvis has long courted another love—understanding how the brain learns vocalization.
Birds Have Skills Previously Described as “Uniquely Human”
Jef Akst | Dec 1, 2016 | 3 min read
Scientists are enlisting the help of pigeons, parrots, crows, jays, and other species to disprove the notion that human cognitive abilities are beyond those of other animals.
Dogs Respond to Words and Inflection
Jef Akst | Aug 31, 2016 | 2 min read
Using an MRI scanner to examine how dogs’ brains process speech, researchers find that our canine companions hear both what we say and how we say it. 
New Human Brain Language Map
Bob Grant | Jun 26, 2015 | 2 min read
Researchers find that Wernicke’s area, thought to be the seat of language comprehension in the human brain for more than a century, is not.
Imaging Musical Improv
Abby Olena, PhD | Feb 20, 2014 | 2 min read
Some areas of the brain that typically process language are active in jazz musicians who are improvising, a study shows.
Language Gene More Active in Girls
Edyta Zielinska | Feb 21, 2013 | 2 min read
One gene involved in speech produces more of its protein in the brains of young girls than boys.
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