Naked Scientists Special Editions

Language and the Brain

--:--
Understanding the human brain and how it completes complex tasks, like processing other people's speech as well as producing its own, is a complex task in and of itself. As it stands, neuroscience isn't able to tell us the underlying computations that lead to human language. New research from the US has taken an interesting approach to working this out: instead of just studying how real, human intelligence deals with language, these researchers have been looking at how artificial intelligence does it too. Cameron Voisey spoke to Ev Fedorenko from MIT to find out more. Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
12 Jan 2022 English United Kingdom Science

Other recent episodes

Surviving a fusion bomb

Ken Mcginley was there during some of the first tests of hydrogen bombs in the 1950s. We were lucky enough to hear his story... Like this podcast? Please help us by supporting the Naked Scientists
10 Aug 7 min

Does our language affect our decision making?

There are many factors that might affect the way we make decisions: our age, our past experiences, even our mood that day. But now, a new study has suggested that the language we speak also plays a part in our willingness to wait for a reward. Researchers gave the choice…
22 Feb 6 min

Microbial life deep underground

Comparatively, we know an awful lot about life on the surface of planet earth. We know a lot less about the extent of life in our oceans, and we know even less about the life festering deep beneath us, in the rocks underground. Scientists estimate that 20% of the earth's…
5 Feb 5 min

How the pandemic affected child development

Babies born during the Covid-19 lockdowns are behind on their language development. That's the finding of a recent study comparing infants born during the pandemic with similar children born in previous years. The reason, as the Royal College of Surgeons Ireland's Susan Byrne explains to Risa Bagwandin, is that social…
20 Oct 2022 4 min

Long COVID in children: what we know so far

Quite soon after the pandemic first struck a significant number of people began to complain of persistent symptoms in the aftermath of being infected with the new coronavirus. These manifestations have been dubbed "long covid". What's less clear is the extent to which this is happening not just to adults…
8 Sep 2021 5 min
All episodes