Keynotes
Narly Golestani is Associate Professor and head of the Brain and Language Lab at the University of Vienna and the University of Geneva. She obtained her PhD in Clinical Psychology from McGill University and completed postdoctoral training at INSERM (France) and University College London (UK). Her research combines behavioural and brain imaging methods to study the neural basis of language, from auditory and phonetic processing to multilingualism, expertise, and language disorders such as dyslexia and aphasia.
Nature and nurture in the auditory cortex: implications for speech, music, and reading
Abstract
There is substantial variability across individuals in speech and music-related auditory skills. This variability reflects an interplay between early-developing anatomical differences in auditory cortex and experience-dependent plasticity across the lifespan. I will present work that links gross and fine-grained morphological features of Heschl’s gyrus and adjacent transverse temporal gyri to phonological learning, multilingual language experience, and musical expertise. Evidence suggests that some aspects of auditory cortex morphology, such as gyrification patterns and surface area, are shaped by genetic and prenatal factors, while cortical thickness and volume show plastic changes with prolonged auditory and linguistic experience. I will also discuss how these structural differences relate to reading and dyslexia, and to individual variation in language learning aptitude. Ongoing work integrates automated anatomical phenotyping, large-scale datasets, and polygenic modeling to delineate how predisposition and experience jointly shape auditory cortical organization and contribute to resilience and vulnerability in language and music.