Symposium Language and the Brain (FU Berlin)
We are happy to announce the Language and the Brain Symposium (3-4 September 2026) organized by the Brain Language Laboratory at Freie Universität Berlin.
Over two days, international contributors to brain-based language research will reflect on recent advances in brain-based language research jointly with the results and achievements of the ERC-funded project MatCo (“Material constraints enabling human cognition”, PI: Prof. Pulvermüller).
The symposium is held in memoriam of Prof. Dr. Dr. Friedemann Pulvermüller, whose contributions to the study of language and the brain have significantly shaped the field.
Confirmed invited speakers:
- Sonja A. Kotz (Maastricht University)
- Luciano Fadiga (Italian Institute of Technology)
- Günther Palm (University of Ulm)
- Yury Shtyrov (Aarhus University)
- Guillaume Thierry (University of Bangor & Adam Mickiewicz University)
- Marcelo Berthier (University of Málaga)
- Olaf Hauk (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge)
- Thomas Picht (Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin)
- Max Garagnani (University of Bologna)
- Kristof Strijkers (Aix-Marseille University)
- Michael Pauen (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin)
- Véronique Boulenger (Université Lyon 2)
- Almut Schüz (Max-Planck-Institut für biologische Kybernetik)
Call for poster presentation on topics:
- Brain-informed approaches to linguistic theory
- Aphasia therapy and clinical language research
- Neurosemantics and neuropragmatics
- Computational and neurobiologically grounded models of language and cognition
- Brain mechanisms of language processing
Satellite Workshop, 2 September 2026
Dr Olaf Hauk (University of Cambridge) will deliver a 3 × 2-hour workshop on EEG/MEG data analysis using the open-source software MNE-Python on 2 September 2026. The sessions will cover key topics including preprocessing (filtering and artefact correction), source estimation, time–frequency analysis, and functional connectivity. Basic knowledge of Python coding is helpful but not required.
Where: Freie Universität Berlin, Germany
When: 3-4 September 2026
Website: https://www.geisteswissenschaften.fu-berlin.de/v/brainlang/Language-and-the-brain/index.html
Call for posters: https://ssl2.cms.fu-berlin.de/geisteswissenschaften/v/brainlang/Language-and-the-brain/PM_Poster-Submission/index.html
Important Deadlines:
Poster submission: 15 July 2026
Registration: 3 August 2026 https://ssl2.cms.fu-berlin.de/geisteswissenschaften/v/brainlang/Language-and-the-brain/PM_Registration-Form/index.html
Note: Limited in-person spaces available; registration is mandatory.
Kind regards,
Fynn Dobler
Tally Miller
Rosario Tomasello
