Words Cannot Say It All

Our ability to speak and communicate with those around us is one of the things that makes humans so special. We take it for granted. But imagine if you were deaf, or unable to form words due to brain damage. How would you communicate?

Luckily, our brains are amazingly adaptive. They can cope with even drastic changes such as brain injury or disability by drafting in other brain areas to help.

For example, deaf children who are given cochlear implants early on in life can learn to converse nearly as well as anyone with normal hearing, even though what they hear is not normal sound. Sign language is another way deaf people can adapt to their environment, and true sign languages have all the richness and complexity of spoken language.

The brain’s plasticity also helps many stroke victims regain the speech abilities they may have lost - other areas of the brain can take over the language functions, even in old age. And while the loss of language ability is always sad, it can help scientists to find out more about how the brain’s language regions work.

If this is what deprived brains can do, imagine what language feats the healthy brain is capable of. For example, conference interpreters must simultaneously understand two languages – do they do this by thinking in both languages at once?

Join us to find out more about language and how we cope when words cannot say it all.

Event organised by:
The European Dana Alliance for the Brain and Imperial College

Speakers

Aliki Fikiori, conference interpreter
Lorraine Leeson, Trinity College Dublin
Karalyn Patterson, University of Cambridge
Richard Wise, Hammersmith Hospital, London

Chair:
Mark Lythgoe, University College London