How early acquired words, objects and faces impact on the adult mind and brain
Speaker: Professor Andy Ellis (University of York)
Location: Room 165, Ridley Building, Newcastle University
Time/Date: 2nd March 2011, 16:00 - 17:00
How do early acquired words, objects and faces impact upon the adult mind and brain?
Healthy adults are faster to recognize objects, faces and words learned early in life than items learned later. People with Alzheimer's disease and certain other neuropsychological conditions retain early-learned vocabulary better than later-learned words. I will review some of the evidence supporting these claims and consider theories developed to explain why it might be that things learned early end up with better representations in the mind and brain than things learned later. I will end by presenting some neuroimaging work in which we have used functional MRI and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in an attempt to understand the neural basis of some of these phenomena. Along the way I will discuss why it might be a bad idea to change the name of your chocolate bar from Marathon to Snickers.
Host: Vicki Bruce
Published: 21st December 2009
