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

Dr. rer. nat. (PhD equivalent) in Psychology

International Max Planck Research School on Neuroscience of Communication: Structure, Function, & Plasticity, Leipzig, Germany
MA in Linguistics

University of Graz, Austria

Experience

April 2026 – Present

Göttingen, Germany

Substitute for Professor Markus Steinbach

Experimental Sign Language Lab, Department of German Philology, University of Göttingen

Courses taught:

“Sign languages: Language and modality” (summer term)
“Psycho- and neurolinguistics of sign languages” (summer term)

April 2026 – Present

Leipzig, Germany

Associated Researcher

Department of Neurophysics, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences

Host: Nikolaus Weiskopf

October 2024 – September 2025

Berlin, Germany

External Lecturer

Section for Deaf Studies und Sign Language Interpreting, Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin

Courses taught:

“Introduction to psycholinguistics of sign languages” (summer term)
“Introduction to the linguistics of spoken language” (winter term)

Commissioner: Christian Rathmann

April 2023 – March 2026

Leipzig, Germany

Postdoctoral Reserarcher

Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences

Project: “Parts of speech and iconicity in German Sign Language” funded by the German Research Foundation Priority Programme on “Visual Communication”
Principal Investigator: Emiliano Zaccarella

April 2023 – March 2026

Göttingen, Germany

Postdoctoral Reserarcher

Experimental Sign Language Lab, Department of German Philology, University of Göttingen

Project: “Parts of speech and iconicity in German Sign Language” funded by the German Research Foundation Priority Programme on “Visual Communication”
Principal Investigators: Thomas A. Finkbeiner, Nina-Kristin Meister, & Markus Steinbach

January 2018 – March 2023

Leipzig, Germany

Doctoral Researcher

Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences

Supervisor: Angela D. Friederici

March 2013 – July 2016

Graz, Austria

Student Assistant

Language Development & Cognitive Science Unit, University of Graz

Supervisor: Annemarie Peltzer-Karpf

Service

Associate Editor, Biolinguistics
Constituent Journal Representative, Board of Directors, Free Journal Network
Ad-hoc Reviewer for different academic journals and conferences

Selected Publications

PC Trettenbrein, N-K Meister, K Slivac, TA Finkbeiner, M Steinbach, AD Friederici, E Zaccarella. Modality-independent core brain network for language as proved by sign language. 2024.

Preprint PDF Dataset

PC Trettenbrein, G Papitto, AD Friederici, E Zaccarella. Functional neuroanatomy of language without speech: An ALE meta-analysis of sign language. In Human Brain Mapping, 2021.

PDF Dataset Video DOI

PC Trettenbrein, N-K Pendzich, J-M Cramer, M Steinbach, E Zaccarella. Psycholinguistic norms for more than 300 lexical signs in German Sign Language (DGS). In Behavior Research Methods, 2021.

Preprint PDF Dataset Video DOI

Recent Publications

All Publications

PC Trettenbrein, AD Friederici. The core of language is modality-independent: Evidence from functional and diffusion MRI with deaf signers. In The Evolution of Language: Proceedings of the 16th International Conference, pp. 476-479., 2026.

PDF DOI

PC Trettenbrein, M Maran, J Pohl, TA Finkbeiner, E Zaccarella, AD Friederici, M Steinbach, N-K Meister. Detection of extraneous visual signals is not affected by the syntactic structure of German Sign Language (DGS). In press at Glossa Psycholinguistics, 2026.

Preprint PDF Dataset

A Bauer, PC Trettenbrein, F Amici, A Ćwiek, L-M Krause, A Kuder, S Ladewig, M Schulder, PB Schumacher, D Spruijt, C Zulberti, S Fuchs, M Schulte-Rüther. Data collection in multimodal language and communication research: A flexible decision framework. In press at Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 2026.

Preprint PDF DOI

Y Becker, PC Trettenbrein. From multimodal brain to amodal language. In Science (eLetter), 2026.

PDF Source Document

TA Finkbeiner, N-K Meister, M Steinbach, PC Trettenbrein. Lexical demonstrations and word classes in German Sign Language (DGS). In Proceedings of Sinn und Bedeutung 30, 2026.

Recent & Upcoming Talks

All Talks

The core of language is modality-independent: Evidence from functional and diffusion MRI with deaf signers

Theoretical linguistics stipulates that the core combinatorial system that builds hierarchical syntactic structure is …

Apr 10, 2026 9:00 AM — 9:30 AM International Conference on the Evolution of Language (EvoLang 2026)

PC Trettenbrein, AD Friederici

Data collection in multimodal language and communication research: A flexible decision framework

Contemporary research on language and communication has expanded beyond its traditional focus on spoken and written forms to encompass …

Mar 10, 2026 4:00 PM — 5:30 PM ViCom Annual Meeting 2026

A Bauer, PC Trettenbrein, F Amici, A Ćwiek, L-M Krause, A Kuder, S Ladewig, M Schulder, PB Schumacher, D Spruijt, C Zulberti, S Fuchs, M Schulte-Rüther

Parts of speech and iconicity in German Sign Language (DGS)

In this talk we provide an update about the work carried out as part of our project in the past years. We will report results from our …

Mar 10, 2026 10:30 AM — 10:45 AM ViCom Annual Meeting 2026

TA Finkbeiner, N-K Meister, M Steinbach, PC Trettenbrein

Fine-grained cytoarchitectonic parcellation of Broca’s region supports functional differentiation in Julich-Brain Atlas (EBRAINS)

This study presents a refined cytoarchitectonic parcellation of Broca’s region into four distinct subdivisions (44p, 44a, 45p, and …

Dec 10, 2025 5:15 PM — 8:00 PM EBRAINS Summit 2025 – Transforming Brain Research and Medicine

N Fedorchenko, S Ruland, H Mohlberg, S Bludau, C Schiffer, K Benning, PC Trettenbrein, AD Friederici, K Amunts

Lexical demonstrations and word classes in German Sign Language (DGS)

Background. Many of the world’s spoken and sign languages mark the difference between the two major lexical categories noun and verb …

Sep 23, 2025 12:00 PM — 12:30 PM Special Session of Sinn und Bedeutung: “Beyond Descriptive Meaning: The Semantics and Pragmatics of Demonstrations and Depictions”

TA Finkbeiner, N-K Meister, PC Trettenbrein

Patrick C. Trettenbrein

Cognitive Scientist

About me

Interests

Education

Experience

Substitute for Professor Markus Steinbach

Associated Researcher

External Lecturer

Postdoctoral Reserarcher

Postdoctoral Reserarcher

Doctoral Researcher

Student Assistant

Service

Selected Publications

Recent Publications

Recent & Upcoming Talks

Contact