From story comprehension to the neurobiology of language

Abstract

Traditionally, language processing has been studied in tightly controlled experimental designs. However, in addition to raising questions about the generalisability of results to natural language use, these designs impose limitations on the types of research questions that can be examined. Accordingly, an increasing number of groups are now exploring new methodological approaches for studying language in rich contextual settings. This special issue aims to deliver an overview of the possibilities that are opened up by the use of context and naturalistic experimental designs. These include the ability to examine various–and hitherto understudied–populations, or linguistic phenomena on different levels (e.g. word, sentence, discourse) in the same naturalistic stimulus such as a story. Other special issue contributions focus on addressing the methodological challenges inherent to naturalistic experiments. Additionally, we stress the importance of interdisciplinary work and open sharing of data from naturalistic experiments in the neurobiology of language.