The Language Neuroscience Podcast A conversation with Ev Fedorenko
Jan 25, 2021
Ev Fedorenko, an Associate Professor at MIT, shares her fascinating journey through cognitive neuroscience, highlighting her passion for languages from childhood. She discusses her innovative use of individual-subject fMRI methods to understand language regions, emphasizing the limitations of group averages. The conversation dives into the complexities of modularity in language processing and how it intersects with cognitive tasks. Ev also reveals her ongoing research on aphasia recovery and the intriguing hypothesis linking language development to social cognition.
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Early Language Passion Shaped Career
- Ev Fedorenko grew up fascinated by languages and learned multiple languages as a child, which shaped her interests.
- A college linguistics class with Alfonso Caramazza convinced her she could study language scientifically and set her career path.
Mentor Mix Shaped Research Path
- Ev combined mentorship from Ted Gibson and Nancy Kanwisher, navigating personal and professional challenges.
- Nancy warned that the dual-advisor path was risky but supported Ev's shift into brain-and-language research.
Localizers Improve Language Mapping
- Nancy Kanwisher's vision-lab methods inspired defining language regions in individual brains using functional localizers.
- Identifying language-responsive voxels per person boosts sensitivity and allows direct cross-study comparisons.