Professor Ping Li from Pennsylvania State University gave a lecture entitled “Language and the Brain” in the seminar room of National Key Research Center for Linguistics and Applied Linguistics at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies on July 2.

The lecture consisted of three parts: background information, language processing mechanisms of normal people and Bilingual’s cognitive neural mechanisms. In the first part, Professor Li introduced the cognitive and neural processing mechanisms of visual information, perception, image, memory, problem solving and inferences. In the second part, Professor Li firstly introduced some classic neural models of language, such as Fodor’s model of the modularity mind and Bateset al’s Distributed view of language; and then he discussed the neuralplasticity of the brain and pointed out that different critical regions are plastic at different times in development; and finally he illustrated how to testify the language comprehension and production models by using the achievements of the analogy of language. The results of experiments by using MRI, fMRI and EEG showed that the processes identified by the models of language comprehension and production really existed, but semantic processing involved more processes, which were not restricted in one region of the brain. In the third part, Professor Li mainly introduced three key variables in bilingual processing research, including AOA, proficiency and mechanism of control. He also introduced the topics needed to do further studies.

The lecture lasted about 2.5 hours and more than 60 teachers and students attended the lecture.