Neurobiologisk evolution og ordets fysiologi
Tanker om neurologisk evolution og hvilke egenskaber der er tilegnet
I artiklen What Dictionaries and Optical Illusions Say About Our Brains bliver vi introduceret til den kognitive forsker Mark Changizi og hans tilgang til at forstå forskelligle aspekter af vores hjerne bedre. Han mener for at kunne gøre det må vi prøve at forstå hvorfor de forskellige mekanismer er udviklet i første omgang.
Although many neuroscientists are trying to figure out how the brain works, Mark Changizi is bent on determining why it works that way. In the past, the assistant professor of cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute has demonstrated that the shapes of letters in 100 writing systems reflect common ones seen in nature: Take the letter “A”—it looks like a mountain, he says. And “Y” might remind one of a tree with branches. He also showed that across different languages most characters take three strokes to write out. That’s because, he says, three is the highest quantity a person’s brain can perceive without resorting to counting. But Changizi’s theories aren’t limited to writing. He also believes that primates developed the ability to see in color so that they could figure out if peers were sending emotional cues. He hatched that theory by comparing the light wavelengths given off by the facial skin of someone blushing to that of a person not flushed.
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My goal is to understand the principles underlying the design of the brain or visual system or cultural artifact, like language or writing systems. I’m not as interested in the mechanisms per se. People like me make the point that you can’t even study those mechanisms without having an idea what those mechanisms are trying to compute. So you have to have some opinion about what the design or function of those mechanisms are for to even do that. So, I am focusing on the function from a teleological [purposive] point of view. Of course it’s unpacked with natural selection or cultural evolution.
Tankelæsning igen – hvordan ord aktiverer hjernen
I artiklerne Computer Model Reveals How Brain Represents Meaning og A computer that can ‘read’ your mind bliver der redegjort for nogle nylige undersøgelser i at prøve at forstå hvordan hjernen bliver aktiveret på baggrund af forskellige ord, ved en beregnet sandsynlighed og fMRI-skanninger.
Scientists at Carnegie Mellon University have taken an important step toward understanding how the human brain codes the meanings of words by creating the first computational model that can predict the unique brain activation patterns associated with names for things that you can see, hear, feel, taste or smell.´
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The team, led by computer scientist Tom M. Mitchell and cognitive neuroscientist Marcel Just, constructed the computational model by using fMRI activation patterns for 60 concrete nouns and by statistically analyzing a set of texts totaling more than a trillion words, called a text corpus. The computer model combines this information about how words are used in text to predict the activation patterns for thousands of concrete nouns contained in the text corpus with accuracies significantly greater than chance.
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Just, a professor of psychology who directs the Center for Cognitive Brain Imaging, said the computational model provides insight into the nature of human thought. “We are fundamentally perceivers and actors,” he said. “So the brain represents the meaning of a concrete noun in areas of the brain associated with how people sense it or manipulate it. The meaning of an apple, for instance, is represented in brain areas responsible for tasting, for smelling, for chewing. An apple is what you do with it. Our work is a small but important step in breaking the brain’s code.”
Relaterede artikler Computer model reveals how brain represents meaning, Brain Imaging Shows If You Are Thinking Of Familiar Object, New Insights Into The Dynamics Of The Brain’s Cortex.
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