Angela D. Friederici

Angela Friederici (born 1952 in Cologne, Germany) is a director at the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig, Germany, and is an internationally recognized expert in neuropsychology and linguistics.[1] She is the author of over 400 academic articles and book chapters, and has edited 15 books on linguistics, neuroscience, language and psychology.

Angela D. Friederici
Born1952 (age 68–69)
Cologne, Germany
NationalityGerman
Known forFirst to report the early left anterior negativity (ELAN), a response to phrase structure violations in language, neurocognitive model of auditory language processing
AwardsAlfried Krupp Prize for Young Scientists of the Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation
Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the German Research Foundation
University of Mainz endowed professor (Johannes Gutenberg-Stiftungsprofessur) 2010
Scientific career
FieldsNeuropsychology,
Linguistics
InstitutionsMax Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences (professor, director)

Early life and career

From 1970 to 1976 Angela Friederici studied linguistics at the University of Bonn (Germany) and the University of Lausanne (Switzerland), graduating with Ph.D. in linguistics in 1976. In 1975 she also began studying psychology at the University of Bonn and graduated with a degree in psychology (German: Dipl.-Psych.) in 1980. In 1986 she completed her professorial degree (Habilitation) at the University of Giessen. After a post-doctoral scholarship at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and work as a research fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics and the Paris Descartes University, Angela Friederici was awarded a professorship in cognitive psychology by the Free University of Berlin in 1989. In 1994 she became a Founding Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Leipzig, which became the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in 2004.[2]

Friederici also holds honorary professorships (Honorarprofessor) from the University of Leipzig (since 1995) for cognitive psychology, the University of Potsdam for Linguistics in the Faculty of Philosophy (since 1997) and for Medicine at the Charité, Humboldt-University Berlin (since 2004). Friederici's research centres on how the human brain processes language, examining both first and second language acquisition and use. She was the first to report the early left anterior negativity (ELAN), an EEG response to syntactic violations in sentences.[3][4]

Her 2016 book Language in the Brain was endorsed by Noam Chomsky, in which she stated her current position on the genetics of language study regarding the FOXP2 gene. On page 222, Friederici states: "It has been proposed that FOXP2 is a gene that plays a major role in speech and language because the mutation of this gene was identified in a family with speech and language problems., although thery were more speech-related rather than language problems as such. The view, however, has also been challenged for several reasons. One reason is that FOXP2 can also be found in non-human primates, mice, birds, and fish, thus in animals that do not speak."[5]

Awards and honors

She is a member of the Editorial or Scientific Advisory Boards of: Brain and Cognition (Action Editor), Brain and Language, Cognitive Neuroscience (Action Editor), Cognitive Science Quarterly, Gehirn & Geist, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Journal of Memory and Language, Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, Neurolinguistik, Physiological Reviews, Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics, The Mental Lexicon, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

Selected works

References
  1. "Professor Angela Friederici – The Neurobiology of the Human Language System". 25 July 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  2. "Angela D. Friederici CV". Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Science. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  3. Friederici, A.D.; Pfeifer, E.; Hahne, A. (1993). "Event related potentials during natural speech processing". Cognitive Brain Research. 1 (3): 183–192. doi:10.1016/0926-6410(93)90026-2. PMID 8257874.
  4. Friederici A.D. (2004). "Event-related brain potential studies in language". Current Neurology and Neuroscience Reports. 4 (6): 466–70. doi:10.1007/s11910-004-0070-0. PMID 15509448. S2CID 46656614.
  5. Friederici, A. Language in the Brain. MIT Press. 2016.
  6. "Leibniz Prize". Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  7. "Angela Friederici ist Inhaberin der 11. Johannes Gutenberg-Stiftungsprofessur" [Angela Friederici is the winner of the 11th Johannes-Gutenberg endowed professorship] (in German). Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  8. "Award of the Wilhelm Wundt Medal of the German Psychological Association (DGPs) 2018 to Professor Angela D. Friederici". 24 September 2018. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
  9. "LSA Elects Three to Honorary Membership". Linguistic Society of America. 24 January 2019. Retrieved 4 February 2019.
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