CHENNAI: The Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT-M) has launched the Language and Cognition Laboratory (LC-Lab), a research facility to study India’s linguistic diversity through an interdisciplinary and technology-driven framework.
Established within the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS), it is the first lab in the country to systematically examine linguistic variation using experimental linguistics.
IIT Madras Director V Kamakoti inaugurated the laboratory, in the presence of HoD-HSS Rajesh Kumar, faculty coordinator Anindita Sahoo, and other stakeholders.
The LC-Lab will explore how humans perceive, process, and produce language, employing advanced experimental techniques to decode the cognitive underpinnings of communication. Emphasising the national need for such interdisciplinary research, Prof Kamakoti said linguistics had shifted toward empirical, data-driven inquiry, blending insights from both the sciences and the humanities.
“India required a dedicated facility that integrates linguistic theory with modern experimental and computational tools. The LC-Lab fills this gap by creating a space that connects linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, and AI, thereby fostering socially relevant and linguistically informed technologies,” he noted.
The LC-Lab will utilise eye-tracking and reaction-time studies to understand how grammar, voice, and sentence structures are processed in multilingual environments. Ongoing projects include studies on grammatical voice and copula constructions, while forthcoming research will examine dyslexia in Indian children to improve educational outcomes through linguistically grounded interventions.
“The lab is committed to advancing interdisciplinary research using technologies that reveal behavioural patterns and enable data-driven insights into human interaction,” Sahoo said.
In the long run, the LC-Lab aims to integrate neurocognitive tools such as Electroencephalography (EEG) and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS). Supported by IITM Pravartak Technologies Foundation and Aspire Infolab, Hyderabad, the initiative also hosted a symposium titled, ‘Language for Thought: Exploring Interdisciplinary Dimensions’, featuring eminent national and international scholars.