Angela Friederici (born 1952) is a director at the

Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences The Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences is located in Leipzig, Germany. The institute was founded in 2004 by a merger between the former Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Leipzig and the Max Planck Institute ...

in Leipzig, Germany, and is an internationally recognized expert in

neuropsychology Neuropsychology is a branch of psychology concerned with how a person's cognition and behavior are related to the brain and the rest of the nervous system. Professionals in this branch of psychology often focus on how injuries or illnesses of t ...

and

linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

. She is the author of over 400 academic articles and book chapters, and has edited 15 books on linguistics,

neuroscience Neuroscience is the scientific study of the nervous system (the brain, spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system), its functions and disorders. It is a multidisciplinary science that combines physiology, anatomy, molecular biology, development ...

, language and

psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Psychology includes the study of conscious and unconscious phenomena, including feelings and thoughts. It is an academic discipline of immense scope, crossing the boundaries betwe ...

Early life and career

Friederici was born in

Cologne Cologne ( ; german: Köln ; ksh, Kölle ) is the largest city of the German western States of Germany, state of North Rhine-Westphalia (NRW) and the List of cities in Germany by population, fourth-most populous city of Germany with 1.1 m ...

, Germany in 1952. From 1970 to 1976, she studied linguistics at the

University of Bonn The Rhenish Friedrich Wilhelm University of Bonn (german: Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn) is a public research university located in Bonn, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. It was founded in its present form as the ( en, Rhine U ...

(Germany) and the

University of Lausanne The University of Lausanne (UNIL; french: links=no, Université de Lausanne) in Lausanne, Switzerland was founded in 1537 as a school of Protestant theology, before being made a university in 1890. The university is the second oldest in Switzer ...

(Switzerland), graduating with Ph.D. in linguistics in 1976. In 1975, she also began studying

at the University of Bonn and graduated with a degree in psychology (German: Dipl.-Psych.) in 1980. In 1986, she completed her professorial degree (

Habilitation Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in many European countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excellence in research, teaching and further education, usually including a ...

) at the

University of Giessen University of Giessen, official name Justus Liebig University Giessen (german: Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen), is a large public research university in Giessen, Hesse, Germany. It is named after its most famous faculty member, Justus von L ...

. After a post-doctoral scholarship at the

Massachusetts Institute of Technology The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private land-grant research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Established in 1861, MIT has played a key role in the development of modern technology and science, and is one of the ...

, and work as a research fellow at the

Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics The Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics (German: ''Max-Planck-Institut für Psycholinguistik''; Dutch: ''Max Planck Instituut voor Psycholinguïstiek'') is a research institute situated on the campus of Radboud University Nijmegen located ...

and the

Paris Descartes University Paris Descartes University (french: Université Paris 5 René Descartes, links=no), also known as Paris V, was a French public university located in Paris. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 ...

, Angela Friederici was awarded a professorship in

cognitive psychology Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of mental processes such as attention, language use, memory, perception, problem solving, creativity, and reasoning. Cognitive psychology originated in the 1960s in a break from behaviorism, which ...

by the

Free University of Berlin The Free University of Berlin (, often abbreviated as FU Berlin or simply FU) is a public research university in Berlin, Germany. It is consistently ranked among Germany's best universities, with particular strengths in political science and t ...

in 1989. In 1994, she became a Founding Director and Scientific Member of the Max Planck Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Leipzig, which became the

in 2004. Friederici also holds honorary professorships ( Honorarprofessor) from the

University of Leipzig Leipzig University (german: Universität Leipzig), in Leipzig in Saxony, Germany, is one of the world's oldest universities and the second-oldest university (by consecutive years of existence) in Germany. The university was founded on 2 Decemb ...

(since 1995) for

, the

University of Potsdam The University of Potsdam is a public university in Potsdam, capital of the state of Brandenburg, Germany. It is mainly situated across three campuses in the city. Some faculty buildings are part of the New Palace of Sanssouci which is known ...

for

Linguistics Linguistics is the scientific study of human language. It is called a scientific study because it entails a comprehensive, systematic, objective, and precise analysis of all aspects of language, particularly its nature and structure. Linguis ...

in the Faculty of

Philosophy Philosophy (from , ) is the systematized study of general and fundamental questions, such as those about existence, reason, knowledge, values, mind, and language. Such questions are often posed as problems to be studied or resolved. Some ...

(since 1997) and for

Medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

at the

Charité The Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin (Charité – Berlin University of Medicine) is one of Europe's largest university hospitals, affiliated with Humboldt University and Free University Berlin. With numerous Collaborative Research Cen ...

, Humboldt-University Berlin (since 2004). Friederici's research centres on how the human brain processes language, examining both first and

second language acquisition Second-language acquisition (SLA), sometimes called second-language learning — otherwise referred to as L2 (language 2) acquisition, is the process by which people learn a second language. Second-language acquisition is also the scientific dis ...

and use. She was the first to report the

early left anterior negativity The early left anterior negativity (commonly referred to as ELAN) is an event-related potential in electroencephalography (EEG), or component of brain activity that occurs in response to a certain kind of stimulus. It is characterized by a negativ ...

(ELAN), an

EEG Electroencephalography (EEG) is a method to record an electrogram of the spontaneous electrical activity of the brain. The biosignals detected by EEG have been shown to represent the postsynaptic potentials of pyramidal neurons in the neocortex ...

response to syntactic violations in sentences. Her 2017 book ''Language in our Brain'' was endorsed by

Noam Chomsky Avram Noam Chomsky (born December 7, 1928) is an American public intellectual: a linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, historian, social critic, and political activist. Sometimes called "the father of modern linguistics", Chomsky is ...

, in which she stated her current position on the genetics of language study regarding the

FOXP2 Forkhead box protein P2 (FOXP2) is a protein that, in humans, is encoded by the ''FOXP2'' gene. FOXP2 is a member of the forkhead box family of transcription factors, proteins that regulate gene expression by binding to DNA. It is expressed in ...

gene. On page 222, Friederici states: "It has been proposed that FOXP2 is a gene that plays a major role in speech and language because the mutation of this gene was identified in a family with speech and language problems., although thery were more speech-related rather than language problems as such. The view, however, has also been challenged for several reasons. One reason is that FOXP2 can also be found in non-human primates, mice, birds, and fish, thus in animals that do not speak."

Awards and honors

*Alfred Krupp Prize for Young Scientists of the

Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation __NOTOC__ The Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach Foundation (german: Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach-Stiftung) is a major German philanthropic foundation, created by and named in honor of Alfried Krupp von Bohlen und Halbach, former owner ...

1990 *

Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize The Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize (german: link=no, Förderpreis für deutsche Wissenschaftler im Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz-Programm der Deutschen Forschungsgemeinschaft), in short Leibniz Prize, is awarded by the German Research Foundation to ...

of the German Research Foundation 1997 *

University of Mainz The Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (german: Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz) is a public research university in Mainz, Rhineland Palatinate, Germany, named after the printer Johannes Gutenberg since 1946. With approximately 32,000 stu ...

endowed professor (Johannes Gutenberg-Stiftungsprofessur) 2010 *Carl Friedrich Gauss-Medal of the Brunswick Scientific Society (2011) *Wilhelm Wundt Medal of the German Society of Psychology (2018) *

Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony The Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony (german: Sächsischer Verdienstorden) is a civil order of merit, and the highest award of the German state of Saxony. First presented in 1997, it is awarded by the Minister-President of Saxony. The ...

(2018) *Elected Honorary Member of the

Linguistic Society of America The Linguistic Society of America (LSA) is a learned society for the field of linguistics. Founded in New York City in 1924, the LSA works to promote the scientific study of language. The society publishes three scholarly journals: ''Language'', ...

(2019) She is a member of the Editorial or Scientific Advisory Boards of: ''

Brain and Cognition ''Brain and Cognition'' is an American scientific journal founded in 1982. It covers the fields of cognitive neuroscience and psychophysiology. According to the ''Journal Citation Reports'', the journal has a 2016 impact factor The impact fac ...

'' (Action Editor), ''Brain and Language'', ''Cognitive Neuroscience'' (Action Editor), ''Cognitive Science Quarterly'', ''Gehirn & Geist'', ''

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience The ''Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience'' is a monthly peer-reviewed academic journal covering cognitive neuroscience. It aims for a cross-discipline approach, covering research in neuroscience, neuropsychology, cognitive psychology, neurobiology, ...

'', ''

Journal of Memory and Language The ''Journal of Memory and Language'' is a peer-reviewed interdisciplinary academic journal of cognitive science, which focuses primarily on the issues of memory and language comprehension. It has been published by Elsevier since 1985. The curr ...

'', ''Journal of Psycholinguistic Research'', ''Neurolinguistik'', ''

Physiological Reviews ''Physiological Reviews'' is a journal published quarterly by the American Physiological Society which has been published since 1921. The editor in chief of the journal is Sadis Matalon (University of Alabama at Birmingham). The journal's first ...

'', ''Psychonomic Bulletin & Review'', ''Studies in Theoretical Psycholinguistics'', ''The Mental Lexicon'', ''

Trends in Cognitive Sciences ''Trends in Cognitive Sciences'' (''TiCS'') is a monthly peer-reviewed review journal published by Cell Press. It is one of 14 journals in the '' Trends'' series. its editor is Lindsey Drayton. ''Journal Citation Reports'' (Thomson Reuters) lists ...

''.

Selected works

* * * * * * * * * *

References

External links

Angela Friederici’s staff page at the Max Planck InstituteVideo on Angela D. Friederici's research (Latest Thinking)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Friederici, Angela 1952 births Living people 21st-century German women scientists Linguists from Germany German women linguists German women neuroscientists German cognitive neuroscientists German women academics University of Bonn alumni University of Lausanne alumni University of Giessen alumni Academic staff of the Free University of Berlin Academic staff of Paris Descartes University Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize winners Members of Academia Europaea Scientists from Cologne German people of Italian descent German expatriates in Switzerland Recipients of the Order of Merit of the Free State of Saxony Max Planck Institute directors