On December 27, 2022, Professor Wang Shiyuan, an internationally renowned linguist from the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, gave a wonderful online lecture entitled "Language and Brain Across the Lifespan" to our students and teachers. This is the seventh lecture of the "Fourth Academic Forum on Language Acquisition, Cognition and Brain Science", which was hosted by Prof. Wang Jianqin, the director of CCSL, and attended by more than 180 people from home and abroad.
From the perspective of historical linguistics, Professor Wang discussed the importance of language and its evolutionary development in two macro dimensions: the historical development of human beings and the life cycle of individuals, emphasizing that the sophisticated human brain and the infinitely variable language based on it have made human beings unique from other animals. Professor Wang believes that traditional linguistic research needs to be combined with emerging neuroscience tools for deeper exploration. Prof. Wang also shared his research on cognitive decline in aging, which he believes is a promising research direction with high social value in the current aging society.
During the Q&A session, Prof. Wang Shiyuan shared his views on "whether artificial intelligence will replace human translators", "how to integrate historical linguistics and neurolinguistics", and "post-operative language rehabilitation for Parkinson's patients". The atmosphere was lively and full of discussion with the participating teachers and students raising questions such as "Will artificial intelligence replace artificial translation? The presentation was informative,which greatly expanded the academic horizons of the attendees, and was highly thought-provoking and inspiring, and all of them said they benefited greatly.
