Exploring Language
Evelina (Ev) Fedorenko aims to understand how the language system works in the brain. Her lab is unpacking the internal architecture of the brain’s language system and exploring the relationship between language and various cognitive, perceptual, and motor systems. To do this, her lab employs a range of approaches – from brain imaging to computational modeling – and works with a diverse populations, including polyglots and individuals with atypical brains. Language is a quintessential human ability, but the function that language serves has been debated for centuries. Fedorenko argues that language serves is primarily as a tool for communication, contrary to a prominent view that language is essential for thinking.
Ultimately, this cutting-edge work is uncovering the computations and representations that fuel language processing in the brain.
Biography
Ev Fedorenko received her bachelor’s degree from Harvard University in 2002 and her PhD in brain and cognitive sciences from MIT in 2007. In 2014, she joined the faculty at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, and in 2019 she returned to MIT as an assistant professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences.
Fedorenko is currently an associate professor of brain and cognitive sciences and an investigator at the McGovern Institute at MIT.
Honors and Awards
Awards
- 2023 – Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
- 2022 – Outstanding Postdoctoral Mentor, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
- 2021 – Excellence in Undergraduate Advising, Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT
- 2020, 2021 – Paul and Lilah Newton Brain Science Award
- 2020-2023 – Frederick A. (1971) and Carole J. Middleton Professor of Neuroscience, MIT
- 2018-2020 – Mercator Fellow, University of Potsdam
- 2014 – 2015 – US Fellow, Kavli Foundation
- 2009-2011; 2014-2017 – Pathway to Independence Career Development Award, National Institutes of Health
