Scientists Identify Brain's Concept Control Core 118
Van Cutter Romney writes "Scientists have identified the part of the brain which matches words to objects. While scanning brains from people who suffer from Semantic Dementia they have found that the front end of the temporal lobe seems to be crucial to conceptual application. A better understanding on how this part of the brain works can help develop therapies to counteract Semantic Dementia — the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer's disease."
Well.. (Score:5, Funny)
Narf (Score:4, Informative)
Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!
Classic [wikiquote.org]
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Brain: The same thing we do every night, Pinky: try to take over the world!
No, that's an obsessive compulsion. Pinky's the one with the form of dementia where you can't remember the word.
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Head Banging (Score:5, Funny)
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Father Jack taught me... (Score:2, Funny)
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Plus, there are several PBS stations across the US that show it on Saturday nights next to Fawlty Towers and the Vicar of Dibley, etc....
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Semantic what? (Score:5, Informative)
***
Signs and Symptoms
SD patients often present with the complaint of word-finding difficulties. On further questioning, patients often appear to have lost the meaning of certain words (e.g. asking "What is a fish?"). As the disease progresses, behavioural and personality changes are often seen similar to those seen in frontotemporal dementia although cases have been described of 'pure' semantic dementia with few late behavioural symptoms.
Neuropsychology
Patients perform poorly on tests of semantic knowledge. Published tests include both verbal and non-verbal tasks e.g. The Warrington concrete and abstract word synonym test (Warrington EK, McKenna P, Orpwood L. Single word comprehension: a concrete and abstract word synonym test. Neuropsychological Rehabilitation 1998; 8: 143-154.) and The Pyramids and Palm Trees task (Howard and Patterson, 1992)
Testing will also reveal deficits in picture naming (with semantic errors being made e.g. "dog" for a picture of a hippopotamus) and category fluency (e.g. "Please list as many animals as you can in one minute").
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"slowly, one by one, the penguins steal my sanity" - Unknown
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Similarly, a marriage starts out with a honeymoon...
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This way men could find out how wives can re-wire us; OH GOD! We need a clue here! How do they do it???
It's very simple. They simply manipulate the control wire. Every man has one ... you should ask your wife to show you where yours is. :D
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2) If they included the symptoms, you would not have been able to geta +5, now would ya?
I think they've got it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Note to editors: Can we have something more detailed than an incorrect, mangled edit of a PR blurb? This says roughly nothing.
Now, I'm off to take my happy pills for the morning. Back later. Hope this all works out.
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Re:I think they've got it! (Score:5, Informative)
Imagine that the dictionary in your brain comes in three volumes, and every word you know appears in each volume. Volume 1 only contains the pronunciation of the word. Volume 2 only contains its part of speech. And Volume 3 only contains the definition.
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Anyway, I
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1. Activity localization might tell you what is necessary for a function, but not what is sufficient for that function.
2. Neurons use inhibition as well as excitation.
3. Limitations of imaging data: In general, when choosing your imaging technique one must decide between temporal resolution OR spatial resolution. There is a trade-off unfortunately that cannot be avoided by researchers right now.
Lastly, how does this study fit in with memory research?
Re:I think they've got it! (Score:4, Insightful)
Until we have such a theory, *all* headlines should read "Scientists discover *where* $mental_phenomenon takes place."
* 'Theory' in the scientific sense -- a hypothesis tested through falsifiable experiment.
Re:I think they've got it! (Score:5, Insightful)
Furthermore, semantic functioning is not conceptual encoding.
Non-humans have concepts: abstract categories whose members they treat indifferently. When a dog that has been house-trained is in a house different from the house it was trained in, it has no difficulty understanding that it isn't supposed to crap on the floor. It has a concept of "house" whose members can be identified by their particulars, but which are all treated in a common way.
Indeed, if other species didn't have some conceptual ability, it is very unlikely we would have any. Evolution works primarily by elaboration, so without some elaborative material to operate on it is very unlikely a species with our conceptual powers would arise. It would be like a planet of snakes suddenly evolving a species of sprinters.
Human reasoning ability comes from a combination of pre-existing capabilities: the aforementioned conceptual capacity we share with many other species, and the equally wide-spread capacity to use symbols such as sounds to refer to other things, like a predator approaching. In humans evolution has enhanced the ability to use symbols so that any symbol can refer to anything, including concepts.
They haven't got a clue... (Score:2)
Misleading Headline (Score:4, Interesting)
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Really, correspondence illness on the hole-punch makes coins go, so why the sad face, shovel?
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Correlation doesn't imply causality (Score:5, Funny)
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No.
Re:Wild undisciplined speculation doesn't imply so (Score:1)
Re:Correlation doesn't imply causality (Score:5, Interesting)
We do have strong evidence to conclude that all of the areas of the mind that involve concepts, memory, reasoning, and sensory inputs - all of the mental processes that constitute cognition and access - can be explained by a functional state of the brain. Exactly which functional states humans indeed have still to discover. The physical theories we need to explain these processes are still incomplete, but that doesn't mean that we need to assert the existence of a soul or God. While it may be desirable to do so, there is still a lot more to discover about the brain and mind before we adopt a non-materialist theory of the brain. In fact with every new discovery scientists make about the brain, the dualistic theory of the mind holds less water, and seems more and more to be a myth that people invented to explain the mystery of consciousness and subjectivity.
We do not know the exact mechanism by which the physical, syntax-processing parts of the brain "computer" translate into semantics. Some have suggested that this is impossible if we look at the brain as simply a computer. But this doesn't refute physicalism.
It is true that we can definitely not explain is how the experience of these concepts, memories, reasonings, and sensory perceptions arises - that is, what is responsible for the phenomenal aspect of consciousness, that thing that allows us to know "what is it like to be me?" and makes my experience unique to my person. We cannot account for this possibility yet using pure physical theories.
Therefore, this may very well be a non-physical process. I am reluctant to take a side one way or the other - there are compelling arguments for both dualism and monism.
But there is enoughdata to support the idea that at least the great majority of cognitive functioning takes place somewhere in the brain and is a physical process, not a spiritual one.
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> one.
True, but I believe a theistic interpretation of such behavior is still superior to a non-theistic interpretation. Why? Think about what science has revealed - there are specific physical areas of my brain that deal with non-physical (ie, abstract) objects such as words or concepts. Why is that? Why should any part of
Nice try, St. Anselm (Score:2, Interesting)
(I'm assuming here that the poster would personally agree with the stronger statement: 'My brain deals with abstract objects because they actually exist.')
That's begging the question here in the same manner as Plantinga's ontological argument. (The question is, "Does my brain deal with 'abstract objects,' or is this just metaphor for a process that reacts to similarities in experience?")
Not to mention the fal
Or perhaps St Fransiscus of Assisi? (Score:2)
Meaning can simply be defined as an activation pattern or a set of features. These features are learned through association. Thus you can identify the object and the word with the same meaning. If you want to read about it, try Barsalou: he very strongly propagates the idea that meaning is derived from sensorial input. I think he overdoes it, but his ideas are understandabl
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I'm un-American, period. This is Europe, after all...
np: New Order - Working Overtime (Waiting For The Sirens' Call)
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Reality! (Score:2)
Printer Friendly (Score:3, Informative)
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Much better choices available. (Score:5, Funny)
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No, you're thinking of the folks like to assign all evil to Halliburton, but when asked to name other contractors that can step right up and provide the same experience and services in the same time frame in the same parts of the world tend to draw something of a blank. A cognitive blank, as it were.
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But that's the whole point. You can't name one, either.
In some industries, the people who shop for certain services already know the viable providers. A company that can roll in on short notice and do some of the things that certain companies can do (especially in the defense services area, or certain pieces of the aerospace industry, or nuclear subs, etc) requires billions in assets like people, equipment,
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"Actually, I think that product is owned by Halliburton."
No, you're thinking of the folks like to assign all evil to Halliburton, but when asked to name other contractors that can step right up and provide the same experience and services in the same time frame in the same parts of the world tend to draw something of a blank. A cognitive blank, as it were.
cognitive dissonance [webster.com]
I think that phrase does not mean what you think it means.
yes, but (Score:1, Redundant)
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No... (Score:1)
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Sure, if you can compile a kernel for brain-human-linux-gnu.
Let's hear it for lesions! (Score:5, Interesting)
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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phineas_Gage [wikipedia.org]
On September 13, 1848, Phineas Gage was working outside the small town of Cavendish, Vermont on the construction of a railroad track where he was employed as a foreman. One of his duties was to set explosive charges in holes drilled into large pieces of rock so they could be broken up and removed. This involved filling the hole with gunpowder, adding a fuse, and then
understanding the brain (Score:4, Funny)
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If the brain is so complex that it can't be understood, then the brain still couldn't understand itself. Which would mean it would be impossible to understand the brain regardless if it were simple or complex.
Unless it is just simple/complex enough to be understood; then we could understand it. And this seems to be the case, as scientists seem to learn more and more about the brain with their studies.
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Big deal.... (Score:1)
...therapies to counteract Semantic Dementia (Score:3, Funny)
In related news, fruits and vegetable juice help (Score:3, Informative)
A lot of the people we used to think were suffering from dementia actually are suffering side effects from drug interactions.
And the tests used to determine words vary - some are as simple as the Letter S (tell me all the words you can that start with the letter S), some involve giving you three words to remember, having you do a puzzle (like saying the letters of the word WORLD backwards), and then seeing how many of those words you correctly recall.
There's also a test, the Boston Naming Test, which involves recognizing pictures and giving the word for the picture - however, it's culturally biased towards Boston, and doesn't work so well with other populations.
Something wrong with this... (Score:3, Interesting)
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Misattribution (Score:1)
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Headaches learning a new language? (Score:2)
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seems to be... (Score:3, Funny)
By Alan Smithee, General Cool Guy
Washington - Man *thinks* he identified the answer to life, the universe, and everything. It *seems* to be somewhere between 38 and 45.
Please promptly place this discovery and Mr. Smithee's amazing journalism covering my scientific feat on Slashdot's main page.
that is so... (Score:5, Funny)
Shoot, what's that word? Not insightful, not useful... something that makes you more concerned/aware about something than you were before.
It's right on the tip of my tongue...
Match this: (Score:3, Interesting)
This is actually a press-problem. Neuroscientists doing this kind of work know the difference, and the field is actually called "Neural correlates". But the popular press seems to always conflate correlation with causation. Bad press!
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Let me know when they come up with a brain scan that identifies the region of the brain that processes humor.
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My God. Where are the mice?!!! (Score:1)
Is intel involved in this project?
Altruistic Excuses for Research? (Score:1)
I think it is good to be altruistic, and I'm all for helping them. But we live in a capitalistic world a
sometimes tragic, sometimes funny (Score:3, Interesting)
Try as he might, he couldn't come up with any word for the animal he was thinking of other than "Benfucker."
Never did find out what kind of tracks they were.
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