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Founded in 1994, the ‘Dynamique Du Langage’ (DDL) research lab explores the interface between the diversity of the world’s languages and the universality of
human linguistic capacity. Our research lies at the heart of major challenges of our times: from understanding language development in children and in
language pathologies to issues of language documentation and vitality and the investigation of the origins of language.
Since 2020, the lab is structured around two research axes (DENDY and DILIS : a fusion of the previous DTT
and HELAN2 axes) and a transversal theme (COVALI)
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More...
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ORTHOPHONIE/LOGOPEDIE 2020INTERNATIONAL SUMMER SCHOOL 04-07 JULY 2022
AWARD
AWARD
ARTICLE
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Syntax and tool use share common brain resources and training one ability improves the other
Far from relying on brain regions specifically devoted to this faculty, language exploits the sensorimotor system to be processed. Some linguistic functions, such as the processing of word meaning,
indeed activates brain regions that are involved in fine motor skills. Does syntax in language also relies on the motor system used to perform complex actions?
Researchers from the DDL laboratory and the IMPACT team at the CRNL, in collaboration
with the Karolinska Institutet in Sweden, unveiled that our ability to understand complex sentences shares neuronal
resources with tool use which motor structure is complex. In a study using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), they showed for the first time that the two functions elicit similar activations
in the same brain region, the basal ganglia, with a similar spatial distribution. In a series of behavioral experiments, they furthermore revealed that training to use a tool
(i.e. inserting grooved, key-shaped pegs on a board with the tool, for 30 minutes) significantly improves syntactic skills for complex sentences, and reciprocally, training with complex sentences
for the same duration improves motor skills with the tool. These findings highlight that the motor system shares a syntactic function with language and offer new perspectives for language rehabilitation in patients.
They also provide new insights into the coevolution of language and tool use. The study is published in Science here.
For more information please contact Véronique BOULENGER and Alice ROY
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Call for participation
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As part of a research-creation residency, the CMTRA seeks to meet children from 10 to 18 months old who evolve in a multilingual context.
For several years, the CMTRA (Centre des Musiques Traditionnelles Rhône-Alpes) has been interested in the cultural, political and educational stakes of plurilingualism. How can we create the conditions for a rewarding,
creative and inclusive coexistence of the different languages that make up our daily lives? Today, more than one child in four lives in a multilingual environment: in other words,
more than one child in four hears and/or pronounces words from at least two different languages. It can be Spanish at home and French at school, French at home and Turkish at the nanny's,
Arabic with mom and French with dad, or French with parents and German with grandparents.
We know today that living with several languages can be a major asset - and not a hindrance - to language development. This reality needs to be better recognized,
understood and supported within families and educational institutions, starting in early childhood, in order to create the conditions for a successful multilingual project.
The project "From Babble to Babel: the sound spaces of plurilingualism" is a scientific and artistic exploration of the first sound productions (sounds and words)
in a plurilingual context (French + another language). It is led by a researcher in language sciences - Sophie Kern from the Dynamique Du Langage laboratory in Lyon - and a musician-composer -
Romain Joubert, and accompanied by the CMTRA team and by Jean-Luc Vidalenc, teacher and trainer in the French National Education system.
Do you know of any children aged 10 to 18 months living in the Lyon area who live with two languages, including French? We are looking for volunteers
to participate in the project. Contact us and we'll explain everything!
More information : ici.
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Development Neurocognition Disorders
Linguistic Diversity and its Sources
Description, Typology, Fieldwork
History and Ecology of Language and languages
