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Language in Our Brain The Origins of a Uniquely Human Capacity
Angela D. Friederici
The MIT Press, 2017
ISBN: 978-0-2620-3692-4 |
Up front it should be stated that this is not light reading, and that this book is not for the novice. Substantial background knowledge in neuroanatomy and linguistics is required to fully understand its contents. Nevertheless, with adequate patience there is much to gain from reviewing this tome. As hard as it is to situate human language into a neuroanatomical framework, decades of experiments have certainly provided some critical understanding, much of which is laid out in this book. Different sections discuss things like language functions, language networks, critical periods and even the evolution of language, so there is something for all readers interested in human language. I particularly like the inclusion of figures from many of the primary research papers that are referenced in the text as it saves the reader the trouble of independently accessing them. In particular, for those looking for a quick and global understanding of the neuroanatomy of language, figures 1.21 (neurocognitive language comprehension model), 3.5 (functional and structural language network) and 4.5 (dynamics within the language network) will prove most useful.
