Principal Investigator
Emiliano Zaccarella is an expert of visual, auditory and signed language processing. In his work, he uses brain imaging techniques (e.g., magnetic resonance imaging, electroencephalography, diffusion tensor imaging), behavioural methods and computational modelling to understand the general organizational principles of linguistic combinatorial abstraction in the human brain, linking ontogeny and phylogeny. He obtained his PhD in Cognitive Sciences at the University of Potsdam, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig and the doctoral program of the Berlin School of Mind and Brain of the Humboldt University of Berlin. He is currently group leader in the department of Neuropsychology of the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences Leipzig.
About
MPI for Human Cognitive & Brain Sciences Leipzig
zaccarella@cbs.mpg.de
Project
Parts of Speech and Iconicity in German Sign Language (DGS)
Selected Publications
- Girard-Buttoz, C., Zaccarella, E., Bortolato, T., Friederici, A. D., Wittig R. M. & Crockford, C. (2022) Chimpanzees use numerous flexible vocal sequences with more than two vocal units: A step towards language? Communications Biology 5, 410. https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-022-03350-8
- Trettenbrein, P. C., Papitto, G. Friederici, A. D. & Zaccarella, E. (2021) Functional neuroanatomy of language without speech, Human Brain Mapping 42 (3), 699-712. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.25254
- Trettenbrein, P. C., Pendzich, N. K., Cramer, J. M., Steinbach, M. & Zaccarella, E. (2021) Psycholinguistic norms for more than 300 lexical signs in German Sign Language (DGS), Behavior Research Methods 53, 1817–1832. https://doi.org/10.3758/s13428-020-01524-y
- Trettenbrein, P. C. & Zaccarella, E. (2021) Controlling Video Stimuli in Sign Language and Gesture Research: The OpenPoseR Package for Analyzing OpenPose Motion-Tracking Data in R, Frontiers in Psychology 12, 411. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2021.628728
- Zaccarella, E., Papitto, G. & Friederici, A. D. (2020) Language and action in Broca’s area: Computational differentiation and cortical segregation, Brain and Cognition 147, 105651. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.bandc.2020.105651