The Neuroscience of Language

This chapter provides a tour of several additional forms of human language communication apart from spoken language. Visual speech (which also contributes to audiovisual speech) requires not only visual cortex, but regions such as posterior temporal sulcus which may help integrate signals across modality. Nonverbal communication, including productions such as crying or laughter, relate to activity in the superior temporal lobes but also in other regions including the cingulate cortex and insula. Reading and the ability to decode written language highlights portions of the visual system, including the ventral occipitotemporal cortex (often referred to as the visual word form area, or VWFA). Learning to read is a complex process that involves written language, knowledge of speech sounds, and motivation. Co-speech gestures are present in children’s language development and can convey semantic information alongside spoken language; integration of such semantic gestures involves left inferior frontal gyrus and premotor cortex.