Timing, Speech and Brain

Given the mismatch between the representational primitives of linguistics and neuroscience, how are these domains of inquiry supposed to be connected in an explanatory way? Jointly with my colleague David Embick I have argued that a theoretically motivated, computationally explicit, and biologically plausible model of the neural basis of language requires linking hypotheses between the cognitive and biological ?alphabets? that are most plausibly stated in computational terms of a certain granularity. Building on the (typically discredited) ?neo-phrenological? approach associated with much of contemporary neuroimaging, I suggest a 'computational organology' approach.

Some of the challenges are exemplified by looking to speech processing. How complex auditory input and speech, in particular, are represented and processed in human cortex constitutes a major interdisciplinary challenge for cognitive neuroscience. Adopting (and adapting) the perspective of Marr?s (1982) approach to vision, a model is outlined that formulates linking hypotheses between biological mechanisms and the representations that underlie auditory recognition. Especially at the implementational level, perceptual analysis is a /multi-time resolution/ process. Experimental findings from MEG as well as concurrent EEG/fMRI illustrate that neuronal mechanisms such as temporal integration and phase-locking are foundational for the construction of elementary auditory events.