Lexical functioning (organization and retrieval): inferences from the study of language in pathologies

• Grant number: 09/14722-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research
• Start date: February 01, 2010
• End date: May 07, 2010
• Field of knowledge: Linguistics, Literature and Arts - Linguistics
• Principal Investigator: Rosana Do Carmo Novaes Pinto
• Grantee: Rosana Do Carmo Novaes Pinto
• Host Investigator: Gabriele Miceli
• Host Institution: Instituto de Estudos da Linguagem (IEL). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Universitá degli Studi di Trento, Italy

Abstract

This project aims to justify a three month internship at CERIN (Center for Neurocognitive Rehabilitation), one of the laboratories of CIMeC (Interdepartmental Center "Mind and Brain"), College of Cognitive Sciences, University of Trento (Italy). It is intimately related to the activities I develop (teaching, researches and community extension) in the field of Neurolinguistics at IEL (Institute of language Studies)/UNICAMP (University of Campinas). The focus of my analysis is the lexical functioning, which has proven to be a fertile ground to study the relationships between language and brain areas (mainly the participation of medial and inferior left temporal lobe regions). Methodological issues are of major interest in the research and they will be the main aspects evaluated in each of the steps that lead to the establishment of correlations between brain and language. Among the activities I highlight: i) the participation in language evaluation and therapeutic monitoring of brain-injured subjects, ii) checking neurological and neuropsychological records of aphasics with signs of anomie (WFD) or with the production of semantic paraphasias, iii) the observation of neuroimaging studies of those who show signs referred in ii) and iv) participation in scientific meetings: seminars, discussion of clinical cases and research projects related to the above mentioned interests. (AU)