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The Language and Communication Study Section reviews applications investigating language and other types of communication and their development across the lifespan [infancy through old age], primarily in humans. All forms of language and communication, both normal and disordered, are considered.  Research methods include [but are not limited to] psychological experiments, naturalistic observation, linguistic and logical analyses, computational modeling, neuroimaging, and genetic studies. Specific areas covered include:

• Perception and production of language: spoken, written, gestural, and tactile; phonetic, phonological, morphological, lexical, and syntactic analysis; semantic and conceptual interpretation; inference; communicative intentions and speech acts; discourse and conversation processing; idioms and figurative language; dialect, register, and style; code switching; metalinguistic abilities
• Language development: Acquisition of first and second language, language change in adulthood; literacy development, bilingualism and multilingualism; sign language; language decline.
• Perceptual and cognitive processes underlying reading and writing abilities; acquisition and development, fluency, instructional methods, interventions for reading and writing disorders.
• Non-linguistic communication: Facial, manual, and bodily gestures; vocal, pictorial, and multimedia communication
• Neurobiological and genetic foundations underlying language and communication abilities; including speech, reading and writing, non-human communication.
• Nature, origins, developmental course, assessment, prevention, treatment and remediation of language and communication disorders (e.g., aphasia, dyslexia, dementia-related impairments, phonological disorders, specific language impairment).
• Relations between language and thought; social roles and norms on use of language and other forms of communication; social-cultural influences of assessment and interventions for language and communication disorders.

Study sections with most closely related areas of similar science listed in rank order are:

Motor Function, Speech and Rehabilitation [MFSR]
Perception and Cognition [CP]
Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disorders [CPDD]
Biobehavioral Regulation, Learning and Ethology [BRLE]
Cognitive Neuroscience [COG]
Developmental Brain Disorders [DBD]
Aging Systems and Geriatrics [ASG]
Genetics of Health and Diseases [GHD]