CNS 2026 | Keynote Address by Peter Hagoort

Dr. Peter Hagoort will deliver his lecture in Vancouver, B.C., March 7, 2026 at the JW Marriott Parq Hotel.

Our language-ready brain

Peter Hagoort, PhD

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging, Nijmegen, The Netherlands

Saturday, March 7, 2026, 5:00 - 6:00 pm, Parq Grand Ballroom

Language is a central feature of human uniqueness. Undeniably members of the species homo sapiens produce and understand speech, and many of them can read and write. They do this in quite different varieties. The sound repertoires of the more than 7000 languages that are still around today vary widely, as do their grammatical structures, and the meanings that their lexical items code for. It is equally undisputable that the human brain provides the shared neurobiological infrastructure for our language skills. This infrastructure requires the contribution of multiple neural networks, some more specialized for language than others. In addition, there is substantial neural plasticity that enables the accommodation of language variation and individual variation in language skills. I will discuss the brain’s infrastructure for this uniquely human capacity from a multiple neural networks perspective. Next to the neuro-architectural features I will discuss the neuro-functional aspects of language processing. I will also discuss fMRI results that indicate the insufficiency of the Mirror Neuron Hypothesis to explain language understanding. Instead, understanding the message that the speaker wants to convey requires the contribution of the Theory of Mind network. Finally, I will illustrate why it is hard to give a good presentation.

About

Hagoort was born in Oudewater and studied psychology and biology at Utrecht University and experimental psychology at Radboud University Nijmegen, where he received his doctorate in 1990 under the supervision of Willem Levelt. He then worked as a project manager at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen. He has been a professor of Cognitive Neuroscience at the Radboud University Nijmegen since 1999. He is a founding director of the Donders Centre for Cognitive Neuroimaging in Nijmegen (1999) and also a director at the Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics in Nijmegen since 2006.^[2][1]

His group uses imaging techniques such as PET, MEG and functional MRI to study language processing in the brain. For example, he examined how patients with language disorders (such as patients with aphasia, dyslexia, autism) compensate for them in other ways. He studied the processes involved in speaking and found that subjects know the grammatical form of a word around 40 milliseconds earlier than the first syllable and that another 120 milliseconds pass before the complete pronunciation is ready. His research is also concerned with the interaction of linguistic functions with others (such as gestures) and has also examined other cognitive abilities and the social implications of cognitive neuroscience.^[3][4][5]

Hagoort developed a neurobiological model of language processing with three distinct components: Memory, Unification, Control. This MUC model has been used to guide his research, and that of others in the field.

For his scientific contributions he received many awards. In 2004 he was awarded by the Dutch Queen with the "Knighthood of the Dutch Lion”. Peter Hagoort is member of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW), of the Academia Europaea, international member of National Academy of Sciences, and international Fellow of the British Academy.

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