Language, time, and the lopsided brain

 

Professor Michael Corballis, of the Department of Psychology within the The University of Auckland, New Zealand, will speak on the subject of 'Language, time and the lopsided brain' as part of QBI's regular Neuroscience Seminar series on Wednesday 07 September 2011.

 

He will argue that language is fundamentally a gestural system, grounded in the primate mirror system that maps perception of movement onto execution. Initially specialized for manual grasping, the system evolved more complex programmes, including praxic skills, and culminating in gestural and eventually vocal language. As it gained complexity, it became increasingly lateralized, as evident in right-handedness and the predominantly left-cerebral control of language, whether signed or spoken. Lateralization may have depended on a pruning of the corpus callosum, allowing increased specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. 
 
DETAILS

Date: 07 September 2011
Time: 12-1pm
Location: Level 7 Auditorium, QBI Building (#79), St.Lucia Campus
 
For a list of upcoming seminars at QBI, go to http://www.qbi.uq.edu.au/neuroscience-seminars
 

 

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