Translation studies meets neuroscience

GARCÍA, ADOLFO M.

Durham

Conferencia; Our Uncommon Ground: Modern Languages and Cultures for the 21st Century; 2018

Durham University

For decades, cognitively-oriented scholars in translation and interpreting studies (TIS) have drawn on insights from other academic spaces, such as linguistics, philosophy, and pragmatics. Yet, despite such interdisciplinary openness, mainstream trends in cognitive TIS have failed to acknowledge accruing evidence from two highly relevant fields: neuropsychology and neuroscience. Against this background, I aim to overview extant research on the translating and interpreting brain. First, I will discuss the various neuroscientific tools that have been employed to examine various translation processes. Second, I will propose a three-stage periodization of pertinent research, considering an empirical corpus that spans almost one century. Third, I will highlight key findings about major topics for TIS, such as the neurocognitive differences between backward and forward translation, the diversity of cognitive mechanisms engaged depending on the nature of the translation units, and the neurocognitive impact of expertise in simultaneous interpreting. Finally, I will address the present and future of the field, highlighting the institutional, financial, methodological, and training-related challenges that need to be faced towards the consolidation of neurocognitive research within TIS. In brief, this presentation seeks to offers an overarching view of an exciting arena for the development of translation studies in the twenty-first century.