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Cambridge Language Sciences

Interdisciplinary Research Centre
 

Johan Bolhuis is Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Neurobiology at Utrecht University, The Netherlands. He received his MSc in Biology (cum laude) at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands (1984). He obtained his PhD in Zoology (cum laude) at Groningen (1989), and was a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Universities of Edinburgh and Cambridge. He was an Associate Professor at the Institute of Biology, Leiden University, The Netherlands, before being appointed to his current role by Utrecht University in 2001. He was a Visiting Scholar at Sidney Sussex College (2014–15) and at St Catharine’s College (201621). Since 2019 he has been an Affiliated Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the University of Cambridge. He is an Honorary Fellow of St Catharine's College, Cambridge. Professor Bolhuis has served as President of the Royal Dutch Zoological Society (200107). He is Editor-in-Chief of the journal Behavioural Processes, and editor of seven books, including Brain, Perception, Memory(OUP, 2000), and, together with linguist Martin Everaert, Birdsong, Speech, and Language (MIT Press, 2013). He is co-editor of the academic textbook The Behavior of Animals (2nd Edition, Wiley-Blackwell, 2022).

Research

The behavioural, neural and cognitive mechanisms of language, learning, memory and development. In particular, the neural mechanisms of birdsong memory, and the neurocognitive parallels between birdsong, speech and language. The relationship between evolution, cognition, and the brain.

Publications

Key publications: 

Bolhuis, J.J., Crain, S., Fong, S. & Moro, A. (2024) AI doesn’t model human language. Nature, 627, 489.

Bolhuis, J.J., Crain, S. & Roberts, I. (2023) Language and learning: the cognitive revolution at 60-odd. Biological Reviews, 98, 931-941.

Bolhuis, J.J., Beckers, G.J.L., Huybregts, M.A.C., Berwick, R.C. & Everaert, M.B.H (2018) Meaningful syntactic structure in songbird vocalizations? PloS Biology, 16(6), e2005157.

Friederici, A.D., Chomsky, N., Berwick, R.C., Moro, A. & Bolhuis, J.J. (2017) Language, mind and brain. Nature Human Behaviour, 1, 713-722.

Everaert, M.B.H, Huybregts, M.A.C., Chomsky, N., Berwick, R.C & Bolhuis, J.J. (2015) Structures, not strings: Linguistics as part of the cognitive sciences. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 19, 729-743.

Bolhuis, J.J., Tattersall, I., Chomsky, N. & Berwick, R.C. (2014) How could language have evolved? PLoS Biology, 12(8), e1001934.

Berwick, R.C., Friederici, A.D., Chomsky, N. & Bolhuis, J.J. (2013) Evolution, brain and the nature of language. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 17, 89-98.

Bolhuis, J.J., Okanoya, K. & Scharff, C. (2010) Twitter evolution: Converging mechanisms in birdsong and human speech. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 11, 747-759.

Bolhuis, J.J. & Wynne, C.D.L. (2009) Can evolution explain how minds work? Nature, 458, 832-833.

Bolhuis, J.J. & Gahr, M. (2006) Neural mechanisms of birdsong memory. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 7,  347-357.

 

Professor of Cognitive Neurobiology
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What we do

Cambridge Language Sciences is an Interdisciplinary Research Centre at the University of Cambridge. Our virtual network connects researchers from five schools across the university as well as other world-leading research institutions. Our aim is to strengthen research collaborations and knowledge transfer across disciplines in order to address large-scale multi-disciplinary research challenges relating to language research.

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