What is the difference between neurolinguistics and psycholinguistics?
Neurolinguistics is the science concerned with the human brain mechanisms underlying the comprehension, production and abstract knowledge of language, be it spoken, signed or written. As an interdisciplinary endeavor, this field straddles the borders between linguistics, cognitive science, neurobiology and computer science, among others. Researchers are drawn to the field from a variety of backgrounds, bringing along a variety of experimental techniques as well as widely varying theoretical perspectives. Neurolinguistics has highlighted the special role of that part of the human brain known as Broca’s area in crucial aspects of human language, namely syntax: the component of language that involves recursion. Psycholinguistics or psychology of language is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language. Initial forays into psycholinguistics were largely philosophical ventures, due mainly to a lack of cohesive data on
