Human Communication Disorders

Leaders: David Copland and Lyndsey Nickels

Specific disorders of human-human communication occur at all levels of language, from impairment in the simple recognition of written or spoken words to difficulties with pragmatics or linguistic aspects of social cognition. Such disorders can be acquired (referring to people who prior to a brain injury possessed normal communicative capacities) or developmental (referring to people who have never possessed communicative capacity at an age-appropriate level).

Investigation of the nature of communication disorders has implications not only for the manner in which such disorders might be treated, but also for the general mechanisms involved in human communication - models of speech perception and production, reading, speech perception development, language acquisition; and even for machine speech and language technology. Moreover, there are potential applications of computational models which may enhance the understanding of communication disorders.

By bringing together expertise across the HCSNet in speech pathology, language disorders, learning disorders, learning disabilities, acquired neurological problems, music cognition (e.g., amusia), hearing and visual impairment, rehabilitation and training, prosthetics, schizophrenia on the one hand; and social psychology, developmental psychology, linguistics, speech and language technology, speech science, music perception and production, audition on the other, it is expected significant insights in both communication disorders, and human communication in general will ensue.

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