Teachers and students interested in brain research gathered in the seminar room of National Key Research Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies on June 26. Professor Ping Li fromPennsylvaniaStateUniversitygave a lecture on the history of brain research and classic findings.

In the early days, work with brain-damaged patients by Paul Broca and Wernicke suggested specialization of specific brain structures in language comprehension and production. Observations of split-brain patients conducted by Michael Gazzaniga and Roger Sperry revealed our two hemispheres have separate functions. Modern research still uses the Korbinian Brodmann’s cytoarchitectonic anatomical definitions to show that distinct areas of the cortex are involved in the execution of specific tasks. However, there has been a recent trend toward the use of multimodal experiments to obtain complementary information about neural connectivity and to promote a more integrated understanding of the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms of mental processes.

This talk was intended for a general audience. It provided teachers and students with the basic knowledge of neuroscience and therefore captured the interest of a wide audience.