Seeing and attending
Recognizing shapes, stabilizing a moving view, selecting visual input and carrying earlier perceptions forward.
11 problemsPerception and speech
How does the brain combine senses and build fluent speech?
Subjects: Brain and cognition · Language and development
Explore this collection
Hearing and smell
Following a voice, recognizing odor mixtures and experiences that cross the senses.
3 problemsReading and numbers
Persistent reading and arithmetic difficulties raise different questions about learning and development.
2 problemsProblems in this collection
9 problemsPerceptual binding
Vision assigns colors, shapes, and movements to objects. How do distributed neural representations support those assignments without mixing features from different objects?
Language acquisition
Children build language abilities from experience while their brains are developing. How do learning, prior capacities, and interaction produce that transformation?
Sound–touch synesthesia
For some people, sounds consistently evoke localized touch sensations. What creates that unusually strong link between hearing and touch?
Developmental stuttering
Stuttering often begins while speech is developing, and many children later recover. What explains its onset and different developmental paths?
Neural coding
Neural activity carries information, but which aspects of that activity does the brain actually use? A pattern readable by an analyst need not be the pattern used for behavior.
Predictive language processing
Readers and listeners anticipate language. How several predictive mechanisms combine across linguistic structure and different people remains unsettled.
Bilingual language control
Bilingual speakers can select and switch languages. How do control strategies adapt to conversation, competing demands and language experience?
McGurk effect
Hearing “ba” while seeing lips form “ga” can sound like “da.” Does the brain average possible speech causes or select among them?
Tip-of-the-tongue states
A known word feels close but will not come out. When does another retrieval attempt clear the block, and when does the same block return?