Cognitive Communication Disorders in Traumatic Brain Injury – The interaction of Language, Cognition and Behaviour from an Interdisciplinary Perspective

• Applicant: Dr. Julia Büttner-Kunert
• Subject Area: Applied Linguistics, Computational Linguistics
• Term: since 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 498560997

Following a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), the interaction of language and cognition can be disturbed. This affects language processing in context and the ability to act with language in various situations. These impairments are called "cognitive communication disorders”.The foundation of the scientific network "Cognitive Communication Disorders in Neurology: The Interaction of Language, Cognition and Behaviour from an Interdisciplinary Perspective" aims to initiate an interdisciplinary discussion on terminology, diagnostics and therapy of cognitive communication disorders. In this context, a promising and innovative methodological approach, which has so far hardly been researched, will be pursued by allocating Cognitive Communication Disorders to linguistic theories that address the intertwining of cognitive and linguistic abilities These can be found in experimental pragmatics, which, based on early psycholinguistic modeling, has described linguistic action at the intersection of cognitive science and linguistic theories over the past 20 years .The network's personnel focus is on scientists with clinical-linguistically background who, together with experts from medicine and neuropsychology, investigate the interaction of language, cognition and behavior. This will also sustainably strengthen the visibility of the small subject of "Clinical Linguistics" and highlight the research policy significance of the proposed network. For this purpose, findings from ongoing research projects at the individual research institutes, especially on the processing of texts and on discourse pragmatics, are to be integrated into the work of the network. So far, a transdisciplinary framework for locating communication disorders after TBI has been lacking, as the individual disciplines are not sufficiently connected. The planned DFG network would mean a high funding potential for the collaboration of the disciplines by generating a flexible organizational framework that ensures a strategic interdisciplinary networking and the promotion of young scientists of the included disciplines. This innovative approach contributes to addressing relevant questions on the action potential of language in a multidimensional perspective. The planned network thus paves the way for new perspectives in trans- and interdisciplinary projects on human-specific communication and its impairment. These research questions will be discussed in regular working group meetings of the network members over a period of 36 months. Renowned guest scientists from linguistics and cognitive sciences will contribute to the network's agenda with keynote lectures on experimental pragmatics.

• DFG Programme: Scientific Networks
• Co-Investigator: Dr. Kristina Jonas