Avatar

Jonathan R. Brennan

Associate Professor of Linguistics & Psychology

University of Michigan

I study the mental structures and computations used to understand words and sentences, with a focus on how these processes are implemented in the brain. My research uses formal, computationally grounded models of language comprehension to probe neural signals collected with electroencephalography (EEG), magnetoencephalography (MEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

Order Language and the brain: A slim guide to neurolinguistics
from your local bookstore

I have a particular interest in experimental methods that are as natural as possible, such as having participants read or listen to a story. Naturalistic techniques are especially suitable with populations for which standard experimental tasks may be inappropriate, such as with children with developmental disorders.

I am the director of the Computational Neurolinguistics Lab in the Department of Linguistics at the University of Michigan.

Interests

  • Cognitive neuroscience of language
  • Syntax and semantics
  • Naturalistic experimental methods

Education

  • PhD in Linguistics, 2010

    New York University

  • BA in Cognitive Science & Classics, 2003

    Vassar College

Projects

Language and the brain: A slim guide to neurolinguistics

This breezy guide introduces readers to the state-of-the-art neuroscientific research that is revolutionizing our understanding of language.

Meaning in a Social World

We investigate how the brain supports building meaning that combines what people say with who is saying it, guided by the understanding that stereotypes and biases can shape (and misshape) comprehension.

Accessing Words Within and Across Languages

We model and test the neural mechanisms that allow us to recognize the meanings of spoken and written words rapidly and efficiently.

Neuro-Computational Models of Natural Language

We build computational models of sentence understanding and evaluate their fit against neural signals collected from people performing a relatively natural task, like listening to a story. (NSF #1607251, 2017-2019)

Neural Coherence at Rest and During Language Processing in Autism Spectrum Disorder

We use magnetoencephalography to probe processing of sounds, words, and sentences in school-aged children with high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorder. (U-M M-Cubed Initative, 2013-2015)

Where’s Jon?

The lab website lists all presentations and posters since 2013. For older presentations, click here

Colloquium: UC Irvine Language Science

Apr 4, 2023 12:00 AM Irvine (virtual)
Project

Conference on Human Sentence Processing

Cross-linguistic masked priming, interference during naturalistic comprehension, and a Very Special announcement about HSP2024.
Mar 9, 2023 — Mar 11, 2023 University of Pittsburgh

MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences

Colloquium presentation (virtual) at the Language Cycles research Group at the MPI for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences
Feb 9, 2023 9:00 AM Leipzig (virtual)
Project

Society for the Neurobiology of Language

Posters on decoding grammar from EEG, modeling memory operations with neural networks, and naturalistic electrophysiological datasets for L2 conversation
Oct 6, 2022 — Oct 8, 2022 Philadelphia
Project Project Posters

Cognitive Science Society

Jeonghwa Cho presents her latest work on using masked priming to probe the interaction between lexical, grammatical, and orthographic …
Jul 27, 2022 — Jul 30, 2022 Toronto
Project
See all talks

Papers

Jonathan R. Brennan (2023). Syntax. Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.

PDF DOI

Jonathan R. Brennan (2023). Hemodynamic Methods. Oxford Handbook of Experimental Syntax.

PDF

Miloš Stanojević, Jonathan R. Brennan, Donald Dunagen, Mark Steedman, John T. Hale (2022). Modeling structure-building in the brain with CCG parsing and large language models. arXiv preprint.

Project DOI

Donald Dunagen, Miloš Stanojević, Maximin Coavoux, Shulin Zhang, Shohini Bhattasali, Jixing Li, Jonathan R. Brennan, John T. Hale (2022). Long-distance linguistic dependencies in Chinese and English brains. bioarxiv preprint.

Project DOI

Jeonghwa Cho, Jonathan R. Brennan (2022). Word-final orthographic priming as a function of word-frequency, prime duration, and morphological status. Proceedings of the Cognitive Science Society.

PDF Project

See all publications

Contact