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Plenary Session |
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What
rats can tell us about language: Contributions of declarative and procedural
memory to language Michael Ullman Georgetown University Increasing evidence suggests that language
crucially depends on two long-term memory brain systems, declarative memory
and procedural memory. Because the computational, anatomical, physiological,
molecular and genetic substrates of these two systems are quite well-studied,
in both animals and humans, they lead to specific predictions about language
that would not likely be made in the more circumscribed study of language
alone. This approach is thus very powerful in being able to generate a wide
range of new predictions for language. I will first give some background on
the two memory systems, and then discuss the manner in which language is predicted
to depend on them. One of the key concepts is that to some extent the two
systems can subserve the same functions (e.g., for
navigation, grammar, etc.), and thus they play redundant roles for these
functions. This has a variety of important consequences for normal and
disordered language and other cognitive domains. I will then present evidence
that basic aspects of language do indeed depend on the two memory systems,
though in different ways across different unimpaired and impaired
populations. We will discuss normal first and second language, individual and
group differences (sex and handedness differences), and a variety of
adult-onset and developmental disorders (e.g., Specific Language Impairment,
autism and Tourette syndrome). |