There has been considerable and exciting advances made in the study of neurological correlations in language acquisition, processing and use, during the last few years. Equal attention was given to the study of how brain damage can disrupt the use and system of language functioning in children as well as in adults. Both these investigations offer unique opportunities to find out more on the anatomo-physiological organization of human brain and in identifying the psychological components in the mental processing of language. Moreover, they provide a means to apply the theories in linguistic science and most rewardingly, they suggest various solutions in the rehabilitation of the unfortunate verbally handicapped persons.
When the International School of Dravidian Linguistics, in collaboration with the Neurology Department of Sree Chitra Tirunal Institute for Medical Sciences and Technology, started the project, 'A Linguistic Study of Communicative Disorders; An Interdisciplinary Study', the aim was to do something to help the people who are suffering from the tragic impairment of a supreme and essential human faculty, the language. Once we started the project, we came to understand that, this is an area where several disciplines ought to meet and exchange ideas. With this view in mind, the organizers of the project decided to convene a seminar on 'Brain and Language' involving experts connected with the problem, belonging to areas such as neurology, speech pathology, anthropology and linguistics. The seminar, conducted from 18-20th November 1993, was one of the most successful ones organized by the ISDL, considering the value of the amount of knowledge and experience shared by the researchers from various disciplines. Here, we are presenting the papers and discussions of the seminar to the academic community with the hope that they would be useful for researchers in the related fields.
We gratefully acknowledge our indebtedness to all those who helped and participated in the conduct of the seminar and encouraged us to publish the proceedings in a short time. The Government of Kerala was kind enough to sanction a liberal grant to support the project and Its activities. We express our sincere thanks to the State Government and the persons concerned. We record our sincere gratitude to Prof. V.I. Subramonlam, the Hon. Director of ISDL, who is the guiding spirit of the project, for his affectionate and valuable advice in making the seminar a success and the publication of the proceedings in a short span of time. We are also particularly indebted to Dr. P.K. Mohan, former Head, Department of Neurology, Sree Chitra Medical Centre, who is always willing to encourage us with inspiring ideas and creative suggestions.
We take this opportunity to express our gratitude to Dr. M. Thankavelu, Chairman of the Advisory Committee of the project, Dr. M. Balaraman Nair, late Dr. K.N. Pai and other members of the Advisory Committee for encouraging us through helpful discussions.
Our most sincere thanks are to Dr. Pratibha Karanth, Mr. T. Madhava Menon I.A.S. (Retd.), Dr. R. Vaidyanathan and Dr. A.P. Andrewskutty, for co-operating in the seminar by presenting papers and participating in the discussions. Also our profound thanks are to Dr. Ravi Sankar S. Nair, Dr. C. Sivathanu, Dr. Lalitha Ramamurthy, Mrs. Sangamitra Saha and Mr. Siva Sankar, who made the discussions lively.
We owe a great deal to Prof. M.E. Manickavasagom for the help rendered by him in editing the manuscript and reading the proofs and our sincere thanks are to him.
Our profound thanks are due to the computer unit of the ISDL, Mr. Harikumar Basi, Mr. S.R. Prabhash, Mr. K. Unnikrishnan and Ms. S. Devika Rani for their efficient work in bringing out the printouts in time.
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