The neurocognitive bases of linguistic processing

Abstract

Recent neuroscientific research has influenced our vision of the neurocognitive bases of language processing. Language is now perceived as a biological organ with genetic and physiological substratum, which emerged over the course of evolution. It is defined as a cognitive function with a complex neural architecture, expressed through cortical activation and interaction networks. This work expands on this definition of language and reviews the findings of the most recent neurolinguistic research for a renewed view of the neurocognitive bases of language processing. Once the genetic basis and the physiological adaptation of the human brain are identified as the mandatory foundation for the development of language skills, this work focuses on the issue of hemispheric lateralization of language processing and discusses the question of neural activation associated with the processing at specific language levels.