The interplay between attention and language

The capacities of awareness, selection, and sustained attention are critical for human communication, from an adult perceiving speech sounds and comprehending complex discourse, to an infant babbling surrounding speech sounds and associating new words with their meanings. When the brain is functioning atypically, due to developmental differences or an injury, the demands of linguistic processing can heavily tax attentional resources. A growing body of research highlights that deficits in one domain frequently co-occur with, and profoundly influence, impairments in the other. Understanding this dynamic interplay is important for advancing our theoretical models of typical human speech and language, and for developing more effective diagnostic and therapeutic strategies for a wide range of developmental and acquired speech and language disorders.This Research Topic invites contributions that explore the bidirectional relationship between attentional and speech/language deficits across the lifespan. We are particularly interested in studies that delineate shared neural substrates and compensatory strategies. Contributions may span diverse populations, including but not limited to individuals with developmental speech disorders, dyslexia, Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), aphasia, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and/or neurodegenerative diseases.We encourage submissions exploring, but not limited to, the following themes: • Employing neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG), neuromodulation (TMS, tDCS), or computational modeling to identify common or distinct neural networks underlying attentional and linguistic processes in clinical populations. • Co-development of attention and language in children, the impact of early attentional impairments on language acquisition, and vice versa, including longitudinal studies. • The role of attention in language recovery post-stroke, TBI, or in the context of neurodegenerative conditions (e.g., aphasia, primary progressive aphasia), and how attentional interventions may influence language outcomes. • How attentional mechanisms modulate specific language processes, such as phonological discrimination, lexical access, syntactic parsing, semantic integration, and discourse coherence, in the presence of deficits. • The role of specific attentional components (e.g., selective attention, sustained attention, divided attention, attentional control, working memory) in various language impairments. • Development and validation of novel behavioral, neurophysiological, or computational tools designed to more precisely characterize the interaction between attention and language deficits. • How the interplay of attention and language deficits manifests in different linguistic contexts or in bilingual/multilingual individuals. Topic editors: Corianne Rogalsky, Guadalupe Dávila, JoAnn Silkes Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/research-topics/76426/the-interplay-between-attention-and-language