The UNESCOG team principally explores the basic mechanisms and the development or acquisition of spoken and written language, as well as the relations either between these mechanisms and higher-level functions (e.g., executive functions) or between domains (e.g., written and spoken language; spoken language and music). In particular, UNESCOG has a long tradition in the study of literacy acquisition and related linguistic and cognitive skills, in both typical and atypical conditions, examining various populations (e.g., hearing-impaired and learning-disabled children, illiterate vs. literate adults) and conditions (e.g., noisy vs. clear inputs). This interest led us also to examine the influence of orthographic representations on speech recognition and the impact of literacy acquisition on cognitive skills beyond language, including on visual nonlinguistic processing. To this aim we use a combination of behavioural, electrophysiological and brain imaging methods (fMRI, TMS). Part of our research is also devoted at developing neurophysiological tools that aim at objectively assess speech sounds encoding at the cortical and subcortical levels.