Working memory mechanisms in speech and language acquisition and processing

Working memory plays a central role in the cognitive and neural systems that support speech and language acquisition. It sustains transient representations of sounds, words, and syntactic structures, allowing learners to form stable linguistic knowledge while supporting the online processing of linguistic information during comprehension and production. Current neuroscience findings reveal that working memory is not a unitary construct but involves a dynamic interaction of the fronto-parietal control network, dorsal and ventral language streams, hippocampus, and cerebellum. Techniques such as high-resolution fMRI, MEG, intracranial recordings, and naturalistic neuroimaging have delineated how these distributed regions synchronize during word learning and sentence processing. Computational frameworks based on predictive coding, neural oscillations, and network dynamics further illuminate how theta–gamma coupling and attentional control enable flexible maintenance, integration, and updating of linguistic information. Despite these advances, the mechanisms through which working memory supports language learning, language processing, and language outcomes across developmental, linguistic, and clinical contexts remain unclear.

This Research Topic aims to advance the understanding of how working memory mechanisms shape the neural processes underlying speech and language acquisition and processing. It seeks to uncover the neural pathways and oscillatory dynamics that support phonological retention, syntax extraction, semantic mapping, and real-time language comprehension and production, while examining how individual differences in working memory influence language outcomes. Of particular interest are studies investigating how memory constraints interact with prediction, attention, and learning efficiency across developmental stages, language experiences, and clinical conditions.

To gather further insights into the intersection of working memory and language acquisition, processing, and disorders, we welcome contributions that address, but are not limited to, the following themes:

- Neural circuits linking phonological, verbal, and sentence-level working memory to first- and second-language learning

-Oscillatory and connectivity signatures of real-time memory maintenance during word learning, sentence processing, and grammar acquisition

-Working memory contributions to reading development, dyslexia, developmental language disorder, stuttering, post-stroke aphasia, and primary progressive aphasia

-Interactions between working memory, attention, and prediction during speech perception and language processing

-Roles of the cerebellum, hippocampus, and basal ganglia in consolidating and maintaining linguistic representations

-Cross-linguistic perspectives on language learning and memory dynamics

-Interventions, training approaches, and neurostimulation studies targeting working memory for language improvement

We welcome original research, brief reports, systematic reviews, and methodological papers. Together, these contributions will foster a comprehensive and mechanistic perspective on how working memory supports the brain's capacity for speech and language learning and processing.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• ... View all formats

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Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Clinical Trial
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Working memory, speech perception, language acquisition, language processing, phonological memory, neural oscillations, fronto-parietal network, developmental language disorder, second language learning, predictive coding

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.