Word learning involves mapping a novel sequence of sounds to a referent. Learning arbitrary
mappings is a classic ‘declarative’ task,and there is ample evidence suggesting that the hippocampus is an important region for encoding such mappings.For example, in an fMRI study examining how adults learn new vocabulary, activity over the left hippocampus and fusiform gyrus declined as associations between pseudowords and pictures were repeated
[49]. Other word learning studies have shown that hippocampal activity at the encoding stage relates to whether words are subsequently recalled [50] or recognised [51]. Davis and Gaskell
[52] have suggested a two-stage account for word learning,where rapid initial learning
dependent on the hippocampus is followed by a slower consolidation process where there is a transfer of learnt information to the cortex,particularly superiortemporal, inferiorfrontal and
premotor regions.