NEW YORK, NY (October 30, 2013) – The emergence of human cognition, language, and speech has been a subject of fascination for hundreds of years. Language enables people to share, cooperate, make plans, preserve knowledge, and tell stories. It allows humans to be sophisticated social creatures. Language facilitates and shapes our thought processes and plays an important role in human cognition and consciousness.
On Monday, November 18, 2013, U.S. and German experts from the Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Georgia State University and Columbia University will discuss the evolutionary routes of complex cognition and language development to advance the understanding of the human brain.This event is the first in a series of UAMR Science Talks and is jointly organized by the UAMR Liaison Office New York, the German Center for Research and Innovation (GCRI), and the German Research Foundation (DFG). Prof. Onur Gϋntϋrkϋn, Professor of Biological Psychology at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum and recipient of the 2013 Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Award, the highest research honor in Germany, will discuss the basis for humans’ highly developed cognitive abilities.
As mammals with the largest number of cortical neurons, humans have long been perceived as “cognitively superior” to other animals. Dr. Gϋntϋrkϋn, however, will present new studies that reveal that birds possess cognitive abilities on par with chimps and the bird brain has taken its own evolutionary path, which has been as successful as that of mammals. Prof. William Hopkins, Professor of Neuroscience and Psychology at Georgia State University, will address how the human communication system has evolved and what changes in the brain accompanied this development of language and speech. His presentation will focus on comparative studies of primates, namely chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans, and monkeys, and how these findings on the animals’ communication abilities relate to our broader understanding of language and speech. Prof. Herbert Terrace, Professor of Psychology and Psychiatry at Columbia University, will moderate the discussion.
This evolutionary neuroscience event will take place on Monday, November 18, 2013, from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. at the German Center for Research and Innovation (871 United Nations Plaza, First Avenue, btw. 48th & 49th Streets).
A video recording will be available shortly after the event on http://www.germaninnovation.org/.
