Universität Wien

300245 SE Auditory and language neuroscience (2025S)

3.00 ECTS (2.00 SWS), SPL 30 - Biologie
Continuous assessment of course work
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes (iCal) - next class is marked with N

This English-language, in-person blocked seminar will take place over six 3-hour sessions, on Monday, Tuesday and Friday mornings from 10h – 13h during the following dates of the 2025 summer term: May 5, 6, 9, 12, 13 and 16th. Seminars will take place at Kolingasse 14-16, PC Seminar room 3.

  • Monday 05.05. 09:45 - 13:00 PC-Seminarraum 3, Kolingasse 14-16, OG02
  • Tuesday 06.05. 09:45 - 13:00 PC-Seminarraum 3, Kolingasse 14-16, OG02
  • Friday 09.05. 09:45 - 13:00 PC-Seminarraum 3, Kolingasse 14-16, OG02
  • Monday 12.05. 09:45 - 13:00 PC-Seminarraum 3, Kolingasse 14-16, OG02
  • Tuesday 13.05. 09:45 - 13:00 PC-Seminarraum 3, Kolingasse 14-16, OG02
  • Friday 16.05. 09:45 - 13:00 PC-Seminarraum 3, Kolingasse 14-16, OG02

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Learning objectives:
1. To acquire a wide perspective on the research and questions in auditory and language neuroscience.
2. To develop critical reading skills.
3. To develop debating skills.

Course description:
The seminar, which will take place entirely in English, will provide a broad overview of the fields of auditory and language neuroscience. Topics covered will include peripheral and central auditory physiology, non-human primate brain imaging research on gesture and communication, music neuroscience, research on the human auditory cortex in relation to language processing, neural bases of language processing in humans in the context of health, dysfunction (i.e. developmental and acquired language disorders) and expertise (e.g. expert phoneticians). There will be at least two guest lecturers during the seminar, internationally renowned experts in their fields.

There will be one to two mandatory readings per session. During each session, there will be a lecture on the topic(s) of the session, followed by student presentations of the mandatory reading(s). The presentations will be done by one student or by groups of 2-3 students, depending on the number of students who register for the seminar. The presentation has to cover the study background, methods, results and discussion, and students need to critically discuss the main results of the study and its limitations. If the paper is a review or opinion paper, the student will summarize and critically discuss its contents.

There are no prerequisites for taking this seminar. It will include introductions to the anatomy of the auditory system, brain imaging methods, neuroanatomy and to the functional anatomy of language. Solid knowledge of spoken and written English is, however, required.

Assessment and permitted materials

The grade will be based on 1) the oral presentation of a scientific article (40% of grade), 2) a written exam designed to assess integration and understanding of the material presented in the course and of mandatory readings (40% of grade) and 3) class participation (20% of grade).

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

To pass, students will be required to present a scientific paper (40%), to do a written exam designed to assess integration and understanding of the material presented in the course and of mandatory readings (40%), and active class participation (20%). Also, to receive credit for the seminar you cannot miss more than one session (and this only if you have a medical note), AND you can only deregister by 16h on the day of the first session – 16h on Monday May 5th (i.e. after that, de-registrations will result in an insufficient grade). Also, should you miss a session or even part thereof, you will be asked to complete an extra assignment on the topic of the missed lecture.

Examination topics

The content of the lectures, the readings and the discussions that take place during the seminar will be relevant for the presentation and for the homework assignment.

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Reading list

The mandatory and optional readings will be made available to students who register for the course. Readings will include research papers and book chapters.

Examples of mandatory readings:
• Hickok G, Poeppel D, Opinion - The cortical organization of speech processing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 8 (5):393-402 (2007).
• Elliott & Theunissen - The modulation transfer function for speech intelligibility. PLoS Comput Biol (2009).
• Wengenroth, Blatow, Hofmann et al. (2013), Increased Volume and Function of Right Auditory Cortex as a Marker for Absolute Pitch, Cereb Cortex
• Schneider P, Scherg M, Dosch HG, Specht HJ, Gutschalk A, Rupp A. (2002). Morphology of Heschl's gyrus reflects enhanced activation in the auditory cortex of musicians, Nat Neurosci. 2002 Jul;5(7):688-94. doi: 10.1038/nn871.

Recommended general textbooks:
• Schnupp, Nelken, and King, MIT Press (2011): ‘Auditory neuroscience – Making sense of sound’ (a pdf of Chapter 1 is available online).
• Moore (2013, 6th edition): An Introduction to the Psychology of Hearing (books available online)
• Kemmerer (2015): Cognitive Neuroscience of Language, Taylor & Francis (digital copies of the book chapters will be made available to the students).

Associated website:
• http://auditoryneuroscience.com/

Association in the course directory

MVN W-12, CoBeNe W2

Last modified: Su 11.05.2025 12:26