Humans are unique in developing large lexicons as their communication tool; to achieve this, they are able to learn new words rapidly. However, neural bases of this rapid learning, which may be an expression of a more general cognitive mechanism likely rooted in plasticity at cellular and synaptic levels, are not yet understood. In this update, the author highlights a selection of recent studies that attempted to trace word learning in the human brain noninvasively. A number of brain areas, most notably in hippocampus and neocortex, appear to take part in word acquisition. Critically, the currently available data not only demonstrate the hippocampal role in rapid encoding followed by slow-rate consolidation of cortical word memory traces but also suggest immediate neocortical involvement in the word memory trace formation. Echoing early behavioral studies in ultra-rapid word learning, the reviewed neuroimaging experiments can be taken to suggest that our brain may effectively form new cortical circuits online, as it gets exposed to novel linguistic patterns in the sensory input.
BattagliaFPBenchenaneKSirotaAPennartzCMWienerSI. 2011. The hippocampus: hub of brain network communication for memory. Trends Cogn Sci15:310–8.
2.
BornJRaschBGaisS. 2006. Sleep to remember. Neuroscientist12:410–24.
3.
BorovskyAKutasMElmanJ. 2010. Learning to use words: event-related potentials index single-shot contextual word learning. Cognition116:289–96.
4.
BreitensteinCJansenADeppeMFoersterAFSommerJWolbersT. 2005. Hippocampus activity differentiates good from poor learners of a novel lexicon. Neuroimage25:958–68.
5.
CareySBartlettE. 1978. Acquiring a single new word. Child Lang Dev15:17–29.
6.
CataniMJonesDKFfytcheDH. 2005. Perisylvian language networks of the human brain. Ann Neurol57:8–16.
7.
CorballisMC. 2009. The evolution of language. Ann N Y Acad Sci1156:19–43.
8.
DavisMHDi BettaAMMacdonaldMJGaskellMG. 2009. Learning and consolidation of novel spoken words. J Cogn Neurosci21:803–20.
9.
DavisMHGaskellMG. 2009. A complementary systems account of word learning: neural and behavioural evidence. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci364:3773–800.
10.
DobelCJunghoferMBreitensteinCKlaukeBKnechtSPantevC. 2009. New names for known things: on the association of novel word forms with existing semantic information. J Cogn Neurosci22:1251–61.
FriedericiA. 2002. Towards a neural basis of auditory sentence processing. Trends Cogn Sci6:78–84.
13.
GaskellMGDumayN. 2003. Lexical competition and the acquisition of novel words. Cognition89:105–32.
14.
HoltmaatASvobodaK. 2009. Experience-dependent structural synaptic plasticity in the mammalian brain. Nat Rev Neurosci10:647–58.
15.
HultenAVihlaMLaineMSalmelinR. 2009. Accessing newly learned names and meanings in the native language. Hum Brain Mapp30:976–89.
16.
KaminskiJCallJFischerJ. 2004. Word learning in a domestic dog: evidence for “fast mapping.”Science304:1682–3.
17.
MajerusSVan der LindenMColletteFLaureysSPonceletMDegueldreC. 2005. Modulation of brain activity during phonological familiarization. Brain Lang92:320–31.
18.
MarksonLBloomP. 1997. Evidence against a dedicated system for word learning in children. Nature385:813–5.
19.
McClellandJLMcNaughtonBLO’ReillyRC. 1995. Why there are complementary learning systems in the hippocampus and neocortex: insights from the successes and failures of connectionist models of learning and memory. Psychol Rev102:419–57.
20.
McLaughlinJOsterhoutLKimA. 2004. Neural correlates of second-language word learning: minimal instruction produces rapid change. Nat Neurosci7:703–4.
21.
Mestres-MisseACamaraERodriguez-FornellsARotteMMunteTF. 2008. Functional neuroanatomy of meaning acquisition from context. J Cogn Neurosci20:2153–66.
22.
Mestres-MisseARodriguez-FornellsAMunteTF. 2007. Watching the brain during meaning acquisition. Cereb Cortex17:1858–66.
23.
MorrisRGMoserEIRiedelGMartinSJSandinJDayM. 2003. Elements of a neurobiological theory of the hippocampus: the role of activity-dependent synaptic plasticity in memory. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci358:773–86.
24.
O’ReillyRCMcClellandJL. 1994. Hippocampal conjunctive encoding, storage, and recall: avoiding a trade-off. Hippocampus4:661–82.
25.
PaulesuEVallarGBerlingeriMSignoriniMVitaliPBuraniC. 2009. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious: how the brain learns words never heard before. Neuroimage45:1368–77.
26.
PulvermüllerF. 1999. Words in the brain’s language. Behav Brain Sci22:253–336.
27.
PulvermüllerFShtyrovY. 2006. Language outside the focus of attention: the mismatch negativity as a tool for studying higher cognitive processes. Prog Neurobiol79:49–71.
28.
PulvermüllerFShtyrovYHaukO. 2009. Understanding in an instant: neurophysiological evidence for mechanistic language circuits in the brain. Brain Lang110:81–94.
29.
RauscheckerAMPringleAWatkinsKE. 2008. Changes in neural activity associated with learning to articulate novel auditory pseudowords by covert repetition. Hum Brain Mapp29:1231–42.
30.
RauscheckerJPScottSK. 2009. Maps and streams in the auditory cortex: nonhuman primates illuminate human speech processing. Nat Neurosci12:718–24.
31.
SaurDKreherBWSchnellSKummererDKellmeyerPVryMS. 2008. Ventral and dorsal pathways for language. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A105:18035–40.
32.
ScovilleWBMilnerPM. 1957. Loss of recent memory after bilateral hippocampal lesion. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry20:11–21.
33.
SegalM. 2005. Dendritic spines and long-term plasticity. Nat Rev Neurosci6:277–84.
34.
SharonTMoscovitchMGilboaA. 2011. Rapid neocortical acquisition of long-term arbitrary associations independent of the hippocampus. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A108:1146–51.
35.
ShtyrovY. Forthcoming2011. Fast mapping of novel word forms traced neurophysiologically. Frontiers Cogn.
36.
ShtyrovYKujalaTPulvermüllerF. 2010. Interactions between language and attention systems: early automatic lexical processing?J Cogn Neurosci22:1465–78.
ShtyrovYPulvermüllerF. 2007. Language in the mismatch negativity design: motivations, benefits and prospects. J Psychophysiol21(3–4):176–87.
39.
SuzukiWA. 2006. Encoding new episodes and making them stick. Neuron50:19–21.
40.
TalposJCDiasRBusseyTJSaksidaLM. 2008. Hippocampal lesions in rats impair learning and memory for locations on a touch-sensitive computer screen: the “ASAT” task. Behav Brain Res192:216–25.
41.
TseDLangstonRFKakeyamaMBethusISpoonerPAWoodER. 2007. Schemas and memory consolidation. Science316:76–82.
42.
WalkerMPStickgoldR. 2006. Sleep, memory, and plasticity. Annu Rev Psychol57:139–66.
43.
WolpawJRCarpJS. 2006. Plasticity from muscle to brain. Prog Neurobiol78:233–63.
