Brain and Language Lab

First Language

We examine various linguistic domains in first (native) language, including morphology, phonology, syntax, compositional semantics, and lexical/semantics. Our work primarily focuses on English, but also probes languages other than English, including Farsi, Hungarian, Italian and Spanish. Our work uses a variety of methodological approaches, including behavioral (psycholinguistic), neurological (both neurodevelopmental and adult-onset disorders), electrophysiological (Event-Related Potentials), neuroimaging (fMRI), and meta-analytical (both behavioral and neuroanatomical). Our first language research focuses mostly on adults, but also examines children.    

LINGUISTIC DOMAINS

These papers investigate first language in English and other languages, either in healthy populations or disorders, though some additionally examine second language.  

MORPHOLOGY

Ullman, M. T., Bulut, T., & Walenski, M. (2024). Hijacking limitations of working memory load to test for composition in language. Cognition, 251, 105875. (Supplementary Material)

Reifegerste, J., Estabrooke, I. V., Russell, L. E., Veríssimo, J., Johari, K., Wilmarth, B., Pagan, F. L., Moussa, C., & Ullman, M. T. (2020). Can sex influence the neurocognition of language? Evidence from Parkinson’s disease. Neuropsychologia, 148, 107633.

Johari, K., Walenski, M., Reifegerste, J., Ashrafi, F., & Ullman, M. T. (2019). Sex, dopamine, and language: A study of inflectional morphology in Parkinson’s disease. Neuropsychology, 33, 508-522. 

Hamrick, P., Lum, J. A., & Ullman, M. T. (2018). Child first language and adult second language are both tied to general-purpose learning systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(7), 1487-1492. (Supporting Information)

Németh, D., Janacsek, K., Turi, Z., Lukacs, A., Peckham, D., Szanka, S., Gazso, D., Lovassy, N., & Ullman, M. T. (2015). The production of nominal and verbal inflection in an agglutinative language: Evidence from Hungarian. PLoS ONE, 10(3), e0119003.

Walenski, M., Mostofsky, S. H., & Ullman, M. T. (2014). Inflectional morphology in high-functioning autism: Evidence for speeded grammatical processing. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 8, 1607-1621.

Dye, C. D., Walenski, M., Prado, E., Mostofsky, S. H., & Ullman, M. T. (2013). Children's computation of complex linguistic forms: A study of frequency and imageability effects. PLoS ONE, 8(9), e74683.

Babcock, L., Stowe, J. C., Maloof, C. J., Brovetto, C., & Ullman, M. T. (2012). The storage and composition of inflected forms in adult-learned second language: A study of the influence of length of residence, age of arrival, sex, and other factors. Bilingualism: Language and Cognition, 15(4), 820-840.

Nemeth, D., Dye, C. D., Sefcsik, T., Janacsek, K., Turi, Z., Londe, Z., Klivenyi, P., Kincses, T. Z., Nikoletta, S., Vecsei, L., & Ullman, M. T. (2012). Language deficits in pre-symptomatic Huntington's Disease: Evidence from Hungarian. Brain and Language, 121(3), 248-253.

Phillips, L., Litcofsky, K. A., Pelster, M., Gelfand, M., Ullman, M. T., & Charles, P. D. (2012) Subthalamic nucleus deep brain stimulation impacts language in early Parkinson's disease. PLoS ONE, 7(8), e42829.

Bowden, H. W., Gelfand, M. P., Sanz, C., & Ullman, M. T. (2010). Verbal Inflectional Morphology in L1 and L2 Spanish: A Frequency Effects Study Examining Storage versus Composition. Language Learning, 60(1), 44-87.

Walenski, M., Weickert, T. W., Maloof, C. J., & Ullman, M. T. (2010). Grammatical processing in schizophrenia: Evidence from morphology. Neuropsychologia, 48, 262-269.

Prado, E. L., & Ullman, M. T. (2009). Can imageability help us draw the line between storage and composition? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory and Cognition, 110(1), 849-866.

Walenski, M., Sosta, K., Cappa, S., & Ullman, M. T. (2009). Deficits on irregular verbal morphology in Italian-speaking Alzheimer's disease patients: Evidence from present tense and past participle production. Neuropsychologia, 47, 1245-1255.

Walenski, M., Mostofsky, S. H., & Ullman, M. T. (2007). Speeded processing of grammar and tool knowledge in Tourette's syndrome. Neuropsychologia, 45, 2447-2460.

Newman, A. J., Ullman, M. T., Pancheva, R., Waligura, D. L., & Neville, H. J. (2007). An ERP study of regular and irregular English past tense inflection. Neuroimage, 34, 435-445.

Hartshorne, J. K., & Ullman, M. T. (2006). Why girls say "holded" more than boys. Developmental Science, 9(1), 21-32.

Ullman, M. T., Pancheva, R., Love, T., Yee, E., Swinney, D., & Hickok, G. (2005). Neural correlates of lexicon and grammar: Evidence from the production, reading, and judgment of inflection in aphasia. Brain and Language, 93(2), 185-238.

Ullman, M. T., & Walenski, M. (2005). Reply: Moving Past the Past Tense. Brain and Language, 93(2), 248-252.

Brovetto, C., & Ullman, M. T. (2005) The Mental Representation and Processing of Spanish Verbal Morphology. In D. Eddington (Ed.), Selected Proceedings of the 7th Hispanic Linguistics Symposium (pp. 98-105). Cascadilla Press.

Drury, J. E., & Ullman, M. T. (2002). The memorization of complex forms in aphasia: Implications for recovery. Brain and Language, 83, 139-141.

Estabrooke, I. V., Mordecai, K., Maki, P., & Ullman, M. T. (2002). The effect of sex hormones on language processing. Brain and Language, 83, 143-146.

Pinker, S., & Ullman, M. (2003). Beyond one model per phenomenon. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 7(3), 108-109.

Pinker, S., & Ullman, M. T. (2002). Combination and structure, not gradedness, is the issue: Reply to McClelland and Patterson. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(11), 472-474.

Pinker, S., & Ullman, M. T. (2002). The past and future of the past tense. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 6(11), 456-463.

Steinhauer, K., & Ullman, M. T. (2002). Consecutive ERP effects of morpho-phonology and morpho-syntax. Brain and Language, 83, 62-65.

Ullman, M. T., Estabrooke, I. V., Steinhauer, K., Brovetto, C., Pancheva, R., Ozawa, K., Mordecai, K., & Maki, P. (2002). Sex differences in the neurocognition of language. Brain and Language, 83, 141-143.

Kensinger, E. A., Ullman, M. T., & Corkin, S. (2001). Bilateral medial temporal lobe damage does not affect lexical or grammatical processing: Evidence from the amnesic patient H. M. Hippocampus, 11(4), 347-360.

van der Lely, H. K. J., & Ullman, M. T. (2001). Past tense morphology in specifically language impaired and normally developing children. Language and Cognitive Processes, 16(2), 177-217.

Ullman, M. T., & Gopnik, M. (1999). Inflectional morphology in a family with inherited specific language impairment. Applied Psycholinguistics, 20(1), 51-117.

Ullman, M. T. (1999). The functional neuroanatomy of inflectional morphology. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 22(6), 1041-1042.

Ullman, M. T. (1999). Acceptability ratings of regular and irregular past tense forms: Evidence for a dual-system model of language from word frequency and phonological neighbourhood effects. Language and Cognitive Processes, 14(1), 47-67.

Ullman, M. T. (1999). Naming tools and using rules: Evidence that a frontal/basal-ganglia system underlies both motor skill knowledge and grammatical rule use. Brain and Language, 69(3), 316-318.

Izvorski, R., & Ullman, M. T. (1999). Verb inflection and the hierarchy of functional categories in agrammatic anterior aphasia. Brain and Language, 69(3), 288-291.

Ullman, M. T., Corkin, S., Coppola, M., Hickok, M., Growdon, J. H., Koroshetz, W. J., & Pinker, S. (1997). A neural dissociation within language: Evidence that the mental dictionary is part of declarative memory, and that grammatical rules are processed by the procedural system. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 9(2), 266-276.

Marcus, G. F., Pinker, S., Ullman, M. T., Hollander, M., Rosen, T. J., Xu, F., & Clahsen, H. (1992). Overregularization in Language Acquisition. Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 57(4), 1-183.

SYNTAX

Johari, K., Walenski, M., Reifegerste, J., Ashrafi, F., Behroozmand, R., Daemi, M., & Ullman, M. T. (2019). A dissociation between syntactic and lexical processing in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 51, 221-235.

Hamrick, P., Lum, J. A., & Ullman, M. T. (2018). Child first language and adult second language are both tied to general-purpose learning systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(7), 1487-1492. (Supporting Information)

Conti-Ramsden, G., Ullman, M. T., & Lum, J. A. G. (2015). The relation between receptive grammar and procedural, declarative, and working memory in specific language impairment. Frontiers in Psychology, 6, 1090.

Bowden, H. W., Steinhauer, K., Sanz, C., & Ullman, M. T. (2013). Native-like brain processing of syntax can be attained by university foreign language learners. Neuropsychologia, 51, 2492-2511.     (Supplementary Data).

Prado, E. L., Alcock, K. J., Muadz, H., Ullman, M. T., & Shankar, A. H. for the SUMMIT Study Group. (2012). Maternal multiple micronutrient supplements and child cognition: A randomized trial in Indonesia. Pediatrics, 130(3), e536-546.

Lum, J. A. G., Conti-Ramsden, G., Page, D., & Ullman, M. T. (2012). Working, declarative and procedural memory in specific language impairment. Cortex, 48(9), 1138-1154.

Morgan-Short, K. Finger, I., Grey, S., & Ullman, M. T. (2012). Second language processing shows increased native-like neural responses after months of no exposure. PLoS ONE, 7(3), e32974.

Morgan-Short, K., Steinhauer, K., Sanz, C., & Ullman, M. T. (2012). Explicit and implicit second language training differentially affect the achievement of native-like brain activation patterns. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(4), 933-947.

Steinhauer, K., Drury, J. E., Portner, P., Walenski, M., & Ullman, M. T. (2010). Syntax, concepts, and logic in the temporal dynamics of language comprehension: Evidence from event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia, 48, 1525-1542.

Morgan-Short, K., Sanz, C., Steinhauer, K., & Ullman, M. T. (2010). Second Language Acquisition of Gender Agreement in Explicit and Implicit Training Conditions: An Event-Related Potential Study. Language Learning, 60(1), 154-193.

Kensinger, E. A., Ullman, M. T., & Corkin, S. (2001). Bilateral medial temporal lobe damage does not affect lexical or grammatical processing: Evidence from the amnesic patient H. M. Hippocampus, 11(4), 347-360.

Newman, A. J., Pancheva, R., Ozawa, K., Neville, H. J., & Ullman, M. T. (2001). An event-related fmri study of syntactic and semantic violations. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 30(3), 339-364.

Steinhauer, K., Pancheva, R., Newman, A. J., Gennari, S., & Ullman, M. T. (2001). How the mass counts: An electrophysiological approach to the processing of lexical features. Neuroreport, 12(5), 999-1005.

Ullman, M. T., & Izvorski, R. (2000). What is special about broca's area? Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 23(1), 52-54.

Izvorski, R., & Ullman, M. T. (1999). Verb inflection and the hierarchy of functional categories in agrammatic anterior aphasia. Brain and Language, 69(3), 288-291.

LEXICAL/SEMANTICS

Miklashevsky, A., Reifegerste, J., García, A.M., Pulvermüller, F., Balota, D.A., Veríssimo, J., &  Ullman, M.T. (in press, 2024). Embodied cognition comes of age: A processing advantage for action words is modulated by aging and the task. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General.

Reifegerste, J., Meyer, A., Zwitserlood, P., & Ullman, M.T. (2021).  Aging affects steaks more than knives: Evidence that the processing of words related to motor skills is relatively spared in aging. Brain and Language, 218, 104941. (Supplemental Material).

Johari, K., Walenski, M., Reifegerste, J., Ashrafi, F., Behroozmand, R., Daemi, M., & Ullman, M. T. (2019). A dissociation between syntactic and lexical processing in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurolinguistics, 51, 221-235.

Hamrick, P., Lum, J. A., & Ullman, M. T. (2018). Child first language and adult second language are both tied to general-purpose learning systems. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 115(7), 1487-1492. (Supporting Information).

Bowden, H. W., Steinhauer, K., Sanz, C., & Ullman, M. T. (2013). Native-like brain processing of syntax can be attained by university foreign language learners. Neuropsychologia, 51, 2492-2511.     (Supplementary Data).

Prado, E. L., Alcock, K. J., Muadz, H., Ullman, M. T., & Shankar, A.H. for the SUMMIT Study Group. (2012). Maternal multiple micronutrient supplements and child cognition: A randomized trial in Indonesia. Pediatrics, 130(3), e536-546.

Newman, A. J., Tremblay, A., Nichols, E. S., Neville, H. J., & Ullman, M. T. (2012). The influence of language proficiency on lexical-semantic processing in native and late learners of English: ERP evidence.Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24(5), 1205-1223.

Steinhauer, K., Drury, J. E., Portner, P., Walenski, M., & Ullman, M. T. (2010). Syntax, concepts, and logic in the temporal dynamics of language comprehension: Evidence from event-related potentials. Neuropsychologia, 48, 1525-1542.

Walenski, M., Mostofsky, S. H., Larson, J. C. G., & M. T. Ullman (2008). Enhanced picture naming in autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 38, 1395-99.

Kensinger, E. A., Ullman, M. T., & Corkin, S. (2001). Bilateral medial temporal lobe damage does not affect lexical or grammatical processing: Evidence from the amnesic patient H. M. Hippocampus, 11(4), 347-360.

Newman, A. J., Pancheva, R., Ozawa, K., Neville, H. J., & Ullman, M. T. (2001). An event-related fmri study of syntactic and semantic violations. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 30(3), 339-364.

Steinhauer, K., Pancheva, R., Newman, A. J., Gennari, S., & Ullman, M. T. (2001). How the mass counts: An electrophysiological approach to the processing of lexical features. Neuroreport, 12(5), 999-1005.

LANGUAGES OTHER THAN ENGLISH