Greg Hickok

‘Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language,’ an excerpt In his new book, Hickok provides a detailed overview of the research into the circuits that control speech and language. In this excerpt from Chapter 5, he shares how meeting his colleague David…

In an excerpt from his new book, @gregoryhickok.bsky.social details how meeting @davidpoeppel.bsky.social upended his understanding of speech processing in the brain and led to them developing the theory for bilateral speech perception.

#neuroskyence

www.thetransmitter.org/language/wir...

On language and thought: evidence from aphasia. My latest essay for @psychtoday.bsky.social from my new book, Wired for Words published @mitpress.bsky.social.
a.co/d/itQY0QZ
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...

You saw it before me!

I've yet to see a hardcopy myself but Amazon has some actual photos posted.

A copy of "Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language" by Gregory Hickok on a plain background. The cover features a image of the brain.

In "Wired for Words," cognitive neuroscientist @gregoryhickok.bsky.social provides a critical synthesis of over 150 years of research on the brain’s networks that enable us to communicate through language: mitpress.mit.edu/978026255341...

Such a fun time chatting with @smwilson.bsky.social about my book and language science generally! The book is out TODAY!

Genomic Investigations of Spoken and Written Language Abilities: A Guide to Advances in Approaches, Technologies, and Discovery Purpose: The aim of this tutorial is to show how the rise of molecular technologies and analytical methods in human genetics yields exciting new ...

Advances in genomics are giving exciting new perspectives on biology of speech, language & reading. My latest peer-reviewed paper is a tutorial, guiding readers from different backgrounds through the history of the field, current state-of-the-art, & where we’re heading. A taster in this thread.🧪
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Why We Dance Ever wonder why humans can't resist moving to music? The answer connects dancing to speech in a surprising way—and explains why parrots are our unlikely partners in rhythm.

Why we dance: The surprising link between talking, music, and moving to the beat. My latest essay @psychtoday.bsky.social adapted from my forthcoming @mitpress.bsky.social book, Wired for Words. www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...

If you're at #Sfn2025, stop by the 8am poster session Nov. 16 on Oral Motor and Speech and say hi! We're presenting two posters on the separate circuits for phonetic and prosodic control in speech production.

Ok, I thought that's where you were going with this. I agree, but if Chomsky's right--and it's not a crazy idea--then it means that those features are not part of language, which renders my position true. Also, I'm talking specifically about the architecture, not the operations.

Brilliant. So a chunk of language is a species of sensorimotor control. What chunk is not, exactly?

Yesterday I had a great chat with Stephen Wilson on his Language Neuroscience Podcast about my forthcoming book, Wired for Words. Watch for the podcast and book release on November 25! langneurosci.org/podcast/

We Are Still Under the Spell of Split-Brain Research For decades, researchers insisted the left brain dominates all aspects of language. But rare cases of "word deafness" and new experiments reveal a hidden symmetry.

We still don't fully understand left-brain, right-brain differences.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...

Similarly, language architecture and sensorimotor architecture (e.g., visually guided grasping) descend from a common neurocomputational architecture. Both build on their ancestral plan and have evolved to solve domain specific problems.

The two cases are exactly the same: humans are a species of ape just like language architecture is a species of sensorimotor control architecture. (Chimp-monkey is a bad example; chimps are not monkeys, but both are primates.) The point is that chimps and humans descend from a common ancestor.

Of course! But that doesn’t justify your “no.” Humans are a species of ape. Would you say yes and no to that as well?

Wanna elaborate?

I'm not sure exactly what you mean, but it sounds like you're taking it a bit too far?

Brain-wide single-neuron bases of working memory for sounds in humans In order to understand the constantly changing acoustic world our brains must maintain elements of auditory scenes in memory. The neural mechanisms for this fundamental process remain unclear. Here, w...

I rarely come on here or any social media, but wanted to share our latest preprint of large-scale human single neuron recordings during an auditory working memory task: doi.org/10.1101/2025...
I'm very grateful to our patients, my co-authors and the funders. And to anyone who reads it :-) 🧠📈🧵👇(1/5)

Language is a "species" of sensorimotor control architecture. A major conclusion regarding the neural architecture of language in my forthcoming book this month, Wired for Words
@mitpress.bsky.social

Wired for Words: Understanding Language and the Brain After 150 years of mystery, neuroscience has finally cracked the code on how language works in the brain—and the answer is surprisingly elegant.

Final adapted post from my forthcoming book
@mitpress.bsky.social Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language. This one focuses on progress over the last 2.5 decades and summarizes some of the main takeaways, IMO. @psychtoday.bsky.social www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...

Audiovisual Temporal Processing as a Behavioral Marker in Carotid Atherosclerotic Disease: Preliminary Data and Hypothesis Changes in auditory and audiovisual (AV) temporal processing occur in early aging and stroke. Asymptomatic carotid atherosclerotic disease (ACAD) can cause chronic vascular insufficiency and silent is...

Audio-visual synchrony perception in speech, which requires precise temporal alignment, might be sensitive to subclinical neurological disease. Here's some preliminary data from stroke. Work led by my former student Jon Venezia. www.jvascsurg.org/article/S074...

A nice piece on my now former grad student Jeremy Yeaton. Very proud of their accomplishments and looking forward to following Jeremy’s future successes!

Beyond Broca: The Two Routes to Speaking For 150 years, Broca's area has defined speech production. Now scientists have discovered a second parallel system that controls the melody and rhythm of how we speak and sing.

Beyond Broca: The Two Routes to Speaking. My new
@psychtoday.bsky.social essay excerpted and adapted from Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language, forthcoming this month @mitpress.bsky.social.
www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...
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A depiction of expression patterns of the FOXP1, FOXP2, and FOXP4 genes in the brain, based on the developmental human RNA sequencing dataset of BrainSpan (http://www.brainspan.org/). Data cover different prenatal timepoints starting at 8-to-10 weeks postconception (abbreviated as pcs), postnatal timepoints from 0-to-12 months (abbreviated as mos), and expression measured in adulthood. A dashed vertical line represents time of birth. Individual dots are shown each representing one brain sample, and lines show loess curves fitted through the datapoints. The analyzed brain regions are A1C, primary auditory cortex; CB, cerebellum; CBC, cerebellar cortex; DFC, dorsolateral prefrontal cortex; DTH, dorsal thalamic nucleus; HIP, hippocampus; IPC, inferior parietal cortex; ITC, inferior temporal cortex; M1C, primary motor cortex; MD, mediodorsal thalamic nucleus; MFC, medial frontal cortex; OFC, orbitofrontal; S1C, primary sensory cortex; STR, striatum; TC, superior temporal cortex; V1C, primary visual cortex; VFC, ventromedial prefrontal cortex. This image comes from Figure 1 of a paper entitled “Molecular networks of the FOXP2 transcription factor in the brain” written by den Hoed, Devaraju and Fisher, published in the journal EMBO Reports in August 2021 (Volume 22, article e58203).

More than two decades have passed since we discovered that rare disruptions of the FOXP2 gene disturb development of proficient speech/language skills. Today we know of multiple FOXP genes that are directly implicated in distinct brain-related conditions with differences in symptoms & severity.🧪 1/n

The Hidden Orchestra: How Ancient Systems Underlie Speech Your brain transforms thoughts into speech using an ancient blueprint: the sensorimotor control system. New research reveals how evolution repurposed movement control for language.

Another excerpt from my book, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language published by @mitpress.bsky.social
This post is on the ancient sensorimotor origins of language production networks.

www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wire...

Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language [Hickok, Gregory] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language

www.amazon.com/Wired-Words-...

We are about a month away from the publication release date for my @mitpress.bsky.social book, Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language. Here's a chapter-by-chapter preview.

drive.google.com/file/d/18mc5...

I view the IFG as the system that codes linearized plans for production at the syntactic (~pars triangularis) and phonological (~pars opercularis) levels. The core hierarchical component is the pMTG.

Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language Amazon.com: Wired for Words: The Neural Architecture of Language eBook : Hickok, Gregory: Kindle Store

It can be preordered now, however. www.amazon.com/Wired-Words-...