Right now, as you're reading this sentence, something remarkable is happening in your brain. Light waves from your screen hit your eyes, transform into electrical signals, and take on meaning. You understand what you're reading. This is language — our human superpower.

But despite 150 years of intensive research, we still do not have a complete picture of how the brain actually accomplishes all of this. We don't even have a good answer to a seemingly simple question: Where in the brain does language happen? It turns out, the answer may be different in different people.

Today we'll hear from neuro-linguist Cory Shain, one of the leaders of a new Big Ideas in Neuroscience project here at Wu Tsai Neuro that is combining multiple brain recording techniques to build individualized maps of the language network—and use these insights to improve brain implants for people who've lost the ability to speak or write due to brain injury or illness.

Learn more

• Laboratory for Computation & Language in Minds & Brains
• Laboratory of Speech Neuroscience
• Neural Prosthetics Translational Lab
• BrainGate
• How the Brain Processes Different Components of Language (Psychology Today, 2024)
• Big Ideas in Neuroscience tackle brain science of everyday life and more (Wu Tsai Neurosciences Institute, 2026)
• Study of promising speech-enabling interface offers hope for restoring communication (Stanford Medicine, 2025)
• The neuroscience of understanding (Stanford Momentum, 2025)
• Distributed Sensitivity to Syntax and Semantics throughout the Language Network(Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2025)
• Hierarchical dynamic coding coordinates speech comprehension in the brain(Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2025)

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