Brain Sciences | Highly Cited Papers in 2022 and 2023 in the Section “Neurolinguistics”

Neurolinguistics is the study of how the brain perceives, processes, and produces language. We welcome submissions presenting original research, metanalyses, and comprehensive reviews from researchers who are pursuing answers to questions such as: what about our brains makes human language possible? Why is our communication system so elaborate? In what ways is our communication system similar to and/or different from that of other animals? Does language use the same kind of neural computation as other cognitive systems (i.e., music or mathematics)? Where and how are words stored in our brain? How do we retrieve a word when we need it? Why is it sometimes difficult (or even impossible) to retrieve that word? How do people who speak more than one language switch between them, and what cognitive mechanisms prevent the languages from interfering with one another? In people who learn two (or more) languages from birth, how are their brains different from the brains of people who speak only one language? Are our left hemispheres really dedicated to language? If a person loses the ability to talk or read because of a stroke (or other forms of brain injury), will that person learn to talk again, and how well? What kinds of therapy are known to help the recovery of language following brain injury, and what new kinds of language therapy look promising in supporting this process? Do people who read languages written from left to right process it in the same way as people who read languages written from right to left? Do people who read a language that is written using non-alphabetic symbols instead of an alphabet process language differently? How do the brains of people with dyslexia compare to those of people who have no reading difficulties, and if there are differences, what are they? How does this work in people who have difficulty speaking, such as those who stutter?

In short, neurolinguistics is the study of neural underpinnings and mechanisms that support our ability to perceive, produce, and understand words and sentences, learn our first, second, and subsequent languages, and whose damage can result in disorders of speech, language, and reading.

As all of the articles published in our journal are of open access format, you have free and unlimited access to the full text. We invite you to read our most highly cited papers published in 2022–2023 listed below:

1. “It Takes a Village: Using Network Science to Identify the Effect of Individual Differences in Bilingual Experience for Theory of Mind”
by Ester Navarro, Vincent DeLuca and Eleonora Rossi
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(4), 487; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12040487
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/4/487

2. “Orofacial Muscle Strength across the Dysarthrias”
by Heather M. Clark, Joseph R. Duffy, Edythe A. Strand, Holly Hanley and Nancy Pearl Solomon
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(3), 365; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12030365
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/3/365

3. “Literacy Acquisition Trajectories in Bilingual Language Minority Children and Monolingual Peers with Similar or Different SES: A Three-Year Longitudinal Study”
by Paola Bonifacci, Ida Carmen Ferrara, Jessica Pedrinazzi, Francesco Terracina and Paola Palladino
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(5), 563; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12050563
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/5/563

4. “Examining Individual Differences in Singing, Musical and Tone Language Ability in Adolescents and Young Adults with Dyslexia”
by Markus Christiner, Bettina L. Serrallach, Jan Benner, Valdis Bernhofs, Peter Schneider, Julia Renner, Sabine Sommer-Lolei and Christine Groß
Brain Sci. 2022, 12(6), 744; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci12060744
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/12/6/744

5. “Speech and Nonspeech Parameters in the Clinical Assessment of Dysarthria: A Dimensional Analysis”
by Wolfram Ziegler, Theresa Schölderle, Bettina Brendel, Verena Risch, Stefanie Felber, Katharina Ott, Georg Goldenberg, Mathias Vogel, Kai Bötzel, Lena Zettl et al.
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(1), 113; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13010113
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/13/1/113

6. “Theories about Developmental Dyslexia”
by John Stein
Brain Sci. 2023, 13(2), 208; https://doi.org/10.3390/brainsci13020208
Available online: https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3425/13/2/208