The study of sign languages provides a unique perspective on the human capacity for language and enables researchers to distinguish …
Patrick C. Trettenbrein
Cognitive Scientist
University of Göttingen
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences
About me
I’m a cognitive scientist, working in the Experimental Sign Language Lab at University of Göttingen and the Department of Neurophysics at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig (both in Germany).
My main research interest are the neural and cognitive foundations of language, focusing on the modality (in-)dependence of linguistic computations in mind and brain. In other words, I don’t ask, “How come (only) humans can speak?”—Instead, I investigate human language as a species-specific mode of cognition.
Moreover, I am interested in how brains compute more generally, as well as how research in the cognitive sciences impacts society and policy.
Interests
- Neurobiology of language
- Formal grammars
- Sign language
- Learning and memory
Education
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Dr. rer. nat. (PhD equivalent) in Psychology
International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Structure, Function, & Plasticity, Leipzig, Germany
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MA in Linguistics
University of Graz, Austria