The Neuroscience of Language and Action in Occupations: A Review of Findings from Brain and Behavioral Sciences

Abstract

Language is a dominant part of our daily activities, playing a significant role in narrating our actions and mediating our interactions with one another. In this article, we examine emerging neuroscientific evidence that language is biologically linked to action and suggest that studying language from an occupation-based perspective can contribute a rich dimension of analysis for occupational science. We briefly review several of the ways in which language is currently being incorporated into the study of occupations and conclude by suggesting future directions for an occupation-based study of language.

Keywords:

• Language usage
• Brain
• Occupational performance
• Occupational identity
• Social interaction

Acknowledgements

We thank Mary Lawlor for her helpful comments on an earlier version of this paper. This work is supported by Award Number R03HD057594 from the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development of the National Institutes of Health. This work is additionally supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, the University of Southern California's Provost's PhD Fellowship, the Brain and Creativity Institute at the University of Southern California, and the Division of Occupational Science & Occupational Therapy at the School of Herman Ostrow Dentistry, USC.