Search research articles

ABOUT JoVE

Overview Leadership Blog JoVE Help Center

AUTHORS

Publishing Process Editorial Board Scope & Policies Peer Review FAQ Submit

LIBRARIANS

Testimonials Subscriptions Access Resources Library Advisory Board FAQ

RESEARCH

JoVE Journal Methods Collections JoVE Encyclopedia of Experiments Archive

EDUCATION

JoVE Core JoVE Business JoVE Science Education JoVE Lab Manual Faculty Resource Center Faculty Site

Terms & Conditions of Use

Related Concept Videos

Language and Cognition

Language and Cognition

Language serves as a bridge between ideas and communication, influencing how individuals perceive and interact with the world. Psychologists have long debated whether language shapes thought or vice versa. This discussion gained grip with Edward Sapir and Benjamin Lee Whorf in the 1940s, who proposed that language determines thought, a concept known as linguistic determinism. They suggested that the vocabulary and structure of a language influence how its speakers think and perceive reality.

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Higher Mental Functions of the Brain: Language

Language is a system of communication that allows the expression of thoughts, ideas, and feelings. The brain processes language in both hemispheres.
Language formation and comprehension take place in the dominant hemisphere. The dominant hemisphere is responsible for understanding the meaning of spoken, written, or sign language, as well as the ability to communicate. For most people, the left hemisphere is the dominant one. The right hemisphere, then, gives tone and emotional context to the...

Lateralization

Lateralization

Brain lateralization refers to the division of mental processes and functions between the two hemispheres of the brain, a phenomenon that optimizes neural efficiency and underpins complex abilities in humans. This specialization allows each hemisphere to perform tasks where it has a comparative advantage, facilitating more refined cognitive capabilities across different domains.

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by

Same author

Animal acoustic communication has a conserved optimal rhythm within the neural delta range.

PLoS biology·2026

Same author

Unravelling the structure of broadband white-emitting silver nanoclusters stabilized in sulfur-doped zeolites.

Nanoscale·2026

Same author

Influence of attention mechanisms on cerebellar and basal ganglia activity during vocal emotion decoding.

NeuroImage·2026

Same author

On human synchrony: A systematic review of the origins of physiological and neural synchrony in parent-infant dyads (0-12 months).

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews·2026

Same author

Behavioral and neural aftermath of right inferior frontal cortex disruption on ambiguous vocal emotion decisional processes.

Scientific reports·2026

Same author

The origins of time: A systematic review of the neural signatures of temporal prediction in infancy.

Developmental cognitive neuroscience·2025

Search research articles

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

Language is the missing link in action-perception coupling: an EEG study.

Pauline Billard¹, Sélim Yahia Coll², Donald Glowinski¹

¹Neuroscience of Emotion and Affective Dynamics Laboratory, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, 1205, Geneva, Switzerland.

Scientific Reports

|September 5, 2020

Summary

This summary is machine-generated.

Language influences perception-action in musically untrained individuals, impacting their ability to connect actions with words. Music training may automate these perception-action couplings.

More Related Videos

Recording Human Electrocorticographic ECoG Signals for Neuroscientific Research and Real-time Functional Cortical Mapping

Recording Human Electrocorticographic ECoG Signals for Neuroscientific Research and Real-time Functional Cortical Mapping

Published on: June 26, 2012

Investigating Social Cognition in Infants and Adults Using Dense Array Electroencephalography dEEG

Investigating Social Cognition in Infants and Adults Using Dense Array Electroencephalography dEEG

Published on: June 27, 2011

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Dec 10, 2025

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Interaction between Phonological and Semantic Processes in Visual Word Recognition using Electrophysiology

Published on: June 29, 2021

Recording Human Electrocorticographic ECoG Signals for Neuroscientific Research and Real-time Functional Cortical Mapping

Recording Human Electrocorticographic ECoG Signals for Neuroscientific Research and Real-time Functional Cortical Mapping

Published on: June 26, 2012

Investigating Social Cognition in Infants and Adults Using Dense Array Electroencephalography dEEG

Investigating Social Cognition in Infants and Adults Using Dense Array Electroencephalography dEEG

Published on: June 27, 2011

Area of Science:

Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology of Music
Language and Perception

Background:

Perception-action relations are fundamental to human interaction.
The role of language in modulating perception-action coupling is not fully understood.
Musical training may influence the automatization of perception-action processes.

Purpose of the Study:

To investigate the influence of language on perception-action relations.
To compare electrophysiological responses in musically trained and untrained individuals.
To examine how semantic congruence affects performance in a perception-action task.

Main Methods:

Electrophysiological (EEG) recordings were used to measure brain activity.
A backward priming paradigm with muted point-light videos of violinists was employed.
Participants judged musical nuances (piano/forte) following congruent or incongruent word stimuli.

Main Results:

Trained participants showed a larger P200 event-related potential at the occipital site.
Untrained participants exhibited a larger N400 effect at the central site.
Untrained individuals demonstrated higher accuracy with semantically congruent word-gesture pairings.

Conclusions:

Language significantly influences perception-action performance in musically untrained individuals.
Perception-action couplings appear less automatized in untrained participants.
Music training may facilitate more automatic perception-action integration, potentially reducing language's modulatory effect.