Bridge between neuroscience and AI: Fatma Deniz inspires at #rp25

Bridge between neuroscience and AI: Fatma Deniz inspires at #rp25

On April 25, 2025, a sensational lecture by Fatma Deniz took place at #rp25, which dealt with the representation of language in the human brain and its comparison with large language models. Fatma Deniz, a leading neuroscientist and computer scientist, is currently a full professor of computer science at the Technical University of Berlin and also Vice President for Digitalization and Sustainability. In her talk, she emphasized that complex neural networks play a central role in human language understanding and that semantic processing occurs in similar brain regions as in large language models that are used in artificial intelligence (AI) today.

The goal of Deniz's research is to build a bridge between neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Their findings could have practical applications, particularly in treating language disorders and developing AI systems that have human-like language abilities. These technologies are crucial to deepen our understanding of the underlying mechanisms of language processing, which is becoming increasingly important in the digital humanities.

Neurocognitive models of language processing

Another important topic in current research is neurocognitive models of auditory language understanding in adults. These models provide a framework for the time series and functional neuroanatomy affecting syntactic, semantic, as well as lexical processes. Separate networks in the left hemisphere play a role while prosodic processes take place in the right hemisphere. The research aims to describe the functional and structural relationships between key language-related regions of the brain such as the temporal, frontal and subcortical areas.

Furthermore, it examines how these linguistic elements interact with other linguistic and non-linguistic areas, such as memory and emotion. This leads to an expanded understanding of the hierarchical processing systems of language, which are of central importance for the development of powerful AI models.

Artificial intelligence and its role in the humanities

Artificial intelligence and machine learning have now become fundamental elements in the digital humanities. They enable new ways to analyze, structure and interpret complex data. AI combines traditional humanities methods with powerful algorithms, creating new possibilities for pattern recognition and analysis of large amounts of data.

AI systems are able to process natural language and images, adapt to new information using appropriate algorithms and solve complex tasks automatically. In the humanities, AI is often used for large data analysis, automatic text recognition, and cultural analysis of visual and auditory media. This shows not only the added value that these technologies offer, but also their potential impact on the future of research.

In summary, the combination of neuroscience and artificial intelligence represents a promising path for the further development of language processing systems. Fatma Deniz's findings could be instrumental in both optimizing the treatment of language disorders and developing AI systems that have human-like language abilities.