Evolutionary Neuroscience of Language Group

Martin Meyer and his group are interested in all aspects of the relationship between brain and language. We ask how (spoken) language is used to understand the brain, and how the brain is used to understand (spoken) language. Using the full arsenal of modern neuroimaging approaches, we have investigated how right and left hemispheres contribute to decoding and understanding spoken utterances. In particular, we are interested in the influences of different forms of hearing loss and brain atrophy on the neuroplasticity of speech comprehension in different languages. Currently, we are working on a model of the evolutionary properties and origins of prosody and speech rhythm and their links to neural circuits of the motor system and aim to fathom the neural underpinning of structure planning during language production. Another area of our research examines the basis and treatment options for central hearing disorders, particularly chronic subjective tinnitus and its limiting effect on speech understanding and everyday communication.