Genetics & Neurobiology of Language 2024

Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Long Island, New York

A couple of weeks ago the Genetics & Neurobiology of Language course concluded a couple of days of discussions and debates in a stunning location 🧠 🗣 🦍 

20 postdocs and PhD students, discussed all things language, together with some of the most incredible researchers in the field in the historical and stunning grounds of the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. 

This course will happen again in two years, so keep an eye on their website: https://meetings.cshl.edu/courses.aspx?course=c-language&year=24

July 25 - August 1, 2024

Key Dates

Application Deadline:  March 31st, 2024

Arrival: July 25th by 6pm EST

Departure: August 1st around 12pm EST

The course was held at the Laboratory's Banbury Conference Center located on the north shore of Long Island. CSHL Courses are intensive, running all day and often including evenings and weekends; students are expected to attend all sessions and reside on campus for the duration of the course.

Organisers:

Simon Fisher, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, The Netherlands

David Poeppel, Ernst Strüngmann Institute, Frankfurt & New York University

Kate Watkins, University of Oxford, UK

Why are children able to acquire highly sophisticated language abilities without needing to be taught? What are the neurobiological and neurophysiological processes that underpin human speech and language, and how do they go awry in developmental and acquired disorders? Which genetic factors contribute to this remarkable suite of human skills, and are there evolutionary precursors that we can study in other species? 

This unique CSHL course, in its fifth iteration, addresses these core questions about the bases and origins of speech and language, through talks, interactive sessions, keynotes and debates, involving leading experts from a range of disciplines. It integrates the state-of-the-art from complementary perspectives, including development, cognitive models, neural basis, gene identification, functional genomics, model systems and comparative/evolutionary studies.

2024 Speakers:

Marina Bedny, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 

Pascal Belin, Aix-Marseille University, France,  

Karen Emmorey, San Diego State University, San Diego, CA 

Evelina Fedorenko, MIT, Cambridge, MA 

Julia Fischer, Cognitive Ethology Laboratory, Goettingen, Germany 

Tecumseh Fitch, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria 

Stephanie Forkel, Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behavior, Netherlands ,  

Liberty Hamilton, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 

Catherine Hobaiter, University of St Andrews, United Kingdom,  

Christian Kell, Goethe University, Frankfurt, Germany 

Genevieve Konopka, UT Southwestern Medical Center, Dallas, TX 

Mairéad MacSweeney, University College London, United Kingdom 

Robert Seyfarth, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 

Daniela Vallentin, Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen, Germany 

Sonja Vernes, The University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Netherlands