•  7
    Il ruolo della costruzione di scenari nella spiegazione dei disturbi macrolinguistici della schizofrenia
    with Elio Carlo and Francesco Ferretti
    Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia 12 (1): 88-105. 2021.
    Riassunto: Al centro di questo articolo è l’analisi dei fondamenti neurocognitivi dei deficit macrolinguistici, discorsivo-narrativi nello specifico, osservabili nei pazienti affetti da schizofrenia. Tale analisi è condotta in riferimento alle ricerche svolte negli ultimi decenni nell’ambito della psicolinguistica e delle neuroscienze. I risultati di queste ricerche hanno mostrato che alcuni aspetti dei disturbi macroelaborativi che caratterizzano il profilo linguistico dei pazienti schizofrenic…Read more
  •  10
    Le afasie di Broca e di Wernicke alla luce delle moderne neuroscienze cognitive
    Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia 10 (3): 295-312. 2019.
    Riassunto: Al centro di questo lavoro è l’analisi di due disturbi acquisiti del linguaggio: l’afasia di Broca e l’afasia di Wernicke. Tradizionalmente, tali disturbi sono stati interpretati come deficit che colpiscono le funzioni legate, rispettivamente, alla produzione articolatoria e alla comprensione del parlato in seguito a lesioni in due specifiche regioni cerebrali: nel caso dell’afasia di Broca, la terza circonvoluzione frontale sinistra; nel caso dell’afasia di Wernicke, la porzione post…Read more
  •  17
    Do Children With Autism Spectrum Disorders Understand Pantomimic Events?
    with Francesco Ferretti, Alessandra Chiera, Slawomir Wacewicz, Przemysław Żywiczyński, Valentina Deriu, Andrea Marini, Rita Magni, Laura Casula, Stefano Vicari, and Giovanni Valeri
    Frontiers in Psychology 10. 2019.
  •  58
    Il volume, in un'ottica cognitiva, affronta il tema delle patologie del linguaggio coniugando la riflessione teorica con le più recenti evidenze empiriche provenienti dalle neuroscienze, dalla neuropsicologia e dalla psicopatologia. Tra i casi presi in esame, ampio spazio è dedicato alla discussione dei deficit comunicativi che caratterizzano patologie quali la sindrome dello spettro autistico, il trauma cranico, la schizofrenia e la demenza di Alzheimer. In casi del genere, i disturbi linguisti…Read more
  •  30
    Mental Time Travel and language evolution: a narrative account of the origins of human communication
    with Ferretti Francesco, Chiera Alessandra, Serena Nicchiarelli, Rita Magni, Giovanni Valeri, and Andrea Marini
    Language Sciences 63 105-118. 2017.
    In this paper we propose a narrative account for the origin of language. Such a proposal is based on two assumptions. The first is conceptual and concerns the idea that the distinctive feature of human language (what sets it apart from other forms of animal communication) has to be traced to its inherently narrative character. The second assumption is methodological and connected to the idea that the study of language origin is closely related to the analysis of the cognitive systems at the base…Read more
  •  15
    Embodied cognition e origine del linguaggio: il ruolo cruciale del gesto
    with Alessandra Chiera and Francesco Ferretti
    Lebenswelt. Aesthetics and Philosophy of Experience 13 43-56. 2018.
    In this paper, we show how the embodied revolution within cognitive sciences has relevant consequences for the topic of language origins. The empirical findings of the embodied approaches, indeed, allow to elaborate a motor theory of language origins according to which human language originated from the gestural communication of our ancestors. Theories that propose that human language emerged from gesture suggest that an important stage in the evolution of human communication was that of pantomi…Read more
  • Episodic future thinking and narrative discourse generation in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders
    with Andrea Marini, Francesco Ferretti, Alessandra Chiera, Rita Magni, Serena Nicchiarelli, Stefano Vicari, and Giovanni Valeri
    Journal of Neurolinguistics 49 178-188. 2019.
    Individuals with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have difficulties in the recollection of past experiences (Episodic Memory). Accumulating evidence suggests that they might have also difficulties in the ability to imagine potential future scenarios (Episodic Future Thinking, EFT) and in narrative generation skills. This investigation aimed to determine 1) whether impairments of EFT can be identified in a large cohort of children with high functioning ASD using a task with minimal narrative deman…Read more
  •  50
    Biology, Culture and Coevolution: Religion and Language as Case Studies
    Journal of Cognition and Culture 14 (3-4): 305-330. 2014.
    The main intent of this paper is to give an account of the relationship between bio-cognition and culture in terms of coevolution, analysing religious beliefs and language evolution as case studies. The established view in cognitive studies is that bio-cognitive systems constitute a constraint for the shaping and the transmission of religious beliefs and linguistic structures. From this point of view, religion and language are by-products or exaptations of processing systems originally selected …Read more
  •  20
    Time and Narrative: An Investigation of Storytelling Abilities in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder
    with Francesco Ferretti, Alessandra Chiera, Serena Nicchiarelli, Giovanni Valeri, Rita Magni, Stefano Vicari, and Andrea Marini
    Frontiers in Psychology 9. 2018.
    This study analyzed the relation between mental time travel (MTT) and the ability to produce a storytelling focusing on global coherence, which is one of the most notable characteristics of narrative discourse. As global coherence is strictly tied to the temporal sequence of the events narrated in a story, we hypothesized that the construction of coherent narratives would rely on the ability to mentally navigate in time. To test such a hypothesis, we investigated the relation between one compone…Read more
  •  8
    In this article we propose that executive functions play a key role in the origin of language. Our proposal is based on the methodological assumption that some of the cognitive systems involved in language functioning are also involved in its phylogenetic origin. In this regard, we demonstrate that a key property of language functioning is discourse coherence. Such property is not dependent on grammatical elements but rather is processed by cognitive systems that are not specific for language, n…Read more
  •  12
    Origin and Evolution of Language: a Close Look at Human Nature
    with Francesco Ferretti
    Humana Mente 7 (27). 2014.
    In this paper we propose a narrative hypothesis on the nature of language and a proto-discursive hypothesis on the origin of our communicative abilities. Our proposal is based on two assumptions. The first assumption, concerning the properties of language, is tied to the idea that global discourse coherence governs the origin of our communicative abilities as well the functioning of these abilities. The second assumption, concerning processing devices, is connected to the idea that the systems o…Read more
  •  5
    This paper aims to show how clinical pragmatics can fruitfully inform the classical theoretical models proposed by philosophical pragmatics. In the first part of the paper I argue that theories proposed in the domain of philosophical pragmatics, as those elaborated by Austin and Grice, are not plausible from a cognitive point of view and that for this reason they cannot be useful to understand pragmatic deficits. In the second part, I show that Relevance Theory overcomes this limitation, but I a…Read more
  •  39
  •  8
    Recensione di A. Chiera, Appesi a un filo. La comunicazione tra comprensione e fraintendimento (review)
    Rivista Internazionale di Filosofia e Psicologia 7 (3): 393-395. 2016.
  •  38
    In this paper we propose a pragmatic approach to the evolution of language based on analysis of a particular element of human communication: discourse coherence. We show that coherence is essential for effective communication. Through analysis of a collection of neuropsychological and neurolinguistic studies, we maintain that the proper functioning of executive processes responsible for planning and executing actions plays a key role in the construction of coherent discourses. Studies that teste…Read more
  •  549
    Processing Narrative Coherence: Towards a top-down model of discourse.
    with Erica Cosentino and Francesco Ferretti
    Open Access Series in Informatics (OASICS) 32 61-75. 2013.
    Models of discourse and narration elaborated within the classical compositional framework have been characterized as bottom-up models, according to which discourse analysis proceeds incrementally, from phrase and sentence local meaning to discourse global meaning. In this paper we will argue against these models. Assuming as a case study the issue of discourse coherence, we suggest that the assessment of coherence is a top-down process, in which the construction of a situational interpretation a…Read more