7 The Literate Brain

Question 1

lexico-semantic route

Answer 1

Convert visual information and read it out loud in speech production
Two possible routes
Lexical semantic route. Word from understand meaning access pronounciation and then read it out loud

Question 2

phonological route

Answer 2

Correspondence between letter features and how they should be pronounced and can convert that through graphemes to phoneme conversion through this route then read it out loud

Question 3

reading

Answer 3

communicating some sort of meaning

how meaning is represented in the brain

Question 4

chinese room problem

Answer 4

Sitting in a room with dictionary
Input - look in dictionary and see it means that
Looks as if understood Chinese language but not really
Can convert one character to other but its just random
If swap character makes no difference bc no rules or constraints to say this character has to be explained by this character
Arbitrary
No meaning to any of the symbols

Question 5

the third dictionary

Answer 5

Third dictionary
Meaning provided - images
Perceptual experience meaning
More meaningful than random characters
One is experience based and one is symbol based
Two kinds of meaning form basis of two theories about how meaning is represented in the brain

Question 6

what are the two ways language meaning is mentally represented

Answer 6

amodal experience

embodied cognition theory

Question 7

amodal experience

Answer 7

Amodal symbol
All mental representation abstract codes or symbols
Amodal symbol system
Representational system

Question 8

problems with amodal symbols

Answer 8

no rules telling you which symbols to use
computer like
letters digits binary codes
No intrinsic physical differences between the symbols
Same thing different values
Expected to be processed and represented in one place inside the brain
Transistors - neurons

Firing or not firing use to represent a 1 or 0
Code - symbolic language

Question 9

embodied cogntition theory

Answer 9

Cannot be symbols bc just random
Different parts of chair transduced through selective attention
Focus on different parts of the experience
E.g. shape colour tactile experience of sitting on chair remember sensations
Representations are experience based

Question 10

what is embodied cognition theory

Answer 10

Experienced based
Different kind of experiences processed and represented in different sensory systems
Motor systems - motor experiences
Auditory - sounds

Multi-sensory representation of that concept
Some physical resemblance to the actual meaning the language is trying to refer to

Question 11

mental representations as abstract symbols

Answer 11

Abstract symbols
Access its actual meanings
Number of things in world to refer to
The symbols themselves aren’t different 
Binary code not instrinsically different just have different values 
Can’t distinguish

Symbols randomly arbitrarily generated
Not grounded in anything
Symbols random and abstract- no meaning itself
No constraints to force them to refer to a particular thing or meaning

Question 12

what is the symbol grounding problem

Answer 12

E.g. stuff or thingy
Can refer to anything
Then itself has no meaning
Only meaning when has certain constraints and can only refer to one thing and not the other

Question 13

mental representations as seonsory experiences

Answer 13

Activate sensory experience
Mental simulation
A form of imagery
Reactivates certain elements of chair - shape texture
Depends on what meaning you need to access for your current purpose
Chair among objects - shape
Perceptual Visio spatial representation about the chair
Can make physical contraints
Certain physical constraints
Refer to actual meaning

Question 14

what is activation in embodied cognition

Answer 14

mental simulation

Question 15

behavioral observations in amodal

Answer 15

language has nothing to do with perception and action

Language processed in central processing unit
Dealing with symbols
Nothing to do with perception and action
Totally different
Two things are independent

Question 16

behavioural observations in embodied cognition

Answer 16

Language processing itself will interact with ongoing perception and action

Language meaning
Perceptual and motor experiences interacting with chair
Mental representation for meaning - sensory experiences
Make very different predictions if you were to do experiments looking at language processing in perception and action

Question 17

stanfield and zwan - pencil

Answer 17

Read sentences
Pictures
Ask people is this object mentioned in sentence
How fast say yes
Amodal system - pencil - symbols - binary code
Pencils represented the same - no difference in how pencil is represented
Doesn’t matter if pencil is represented vertically or horizontally
How fast say yes wont matter?
Not the case - orientation of pencil does make a difference

Question 18

findings from pencil study

Answer 18

Match and mismatch difference in response time
Visual representation is being represented in the brain
Faster when orientation matches - priming - preactivation of a particular orientation
Warmed up those neurons that represent that orientation
Makes picture processing faster
Ready for vertical orientation - easier to process- quicker response
Different orientation - reconcile the difference - response slower
picture verification task

Question 19

reading vs sensory perception

visual shape

Answer 19

egg in box egg in pan

react different speed depending on match or mismatch in sentence

Question 20

reading vs sensory perception

visual colour

Answer 20

steak in window

steak on plate

Question 21

spatial location

Answer 21

hat
cowboy
boots

Associated with that concept is being activated
Interacts with how see and process words on screen

Makes sense
How spatially arranged in real life
If spatial location is incongruent with how should be
Or how understand conceptually - takes longer to process

Question 22

reading vs body movements - glenberg

Answer 22

faster when actions match

Question 23

amodal symbolic theory predictions - neural observations

Answer 23

Represented and processed in a single symbolic system
Deals with whichever symbol you have in mind

a central language processing unit

Question 24

embodied cognition theeory

perception symbol theory

Answer 24

Logographic e.g. Chinese some resemblance
Normally language form doesn’t have meaning at all
Actual experience or meaning it refers to thats meaningful
That meaning is not abstract its sensory enhanced
Core language system to serve as indexing system to relate symbols to meaning
Language system isn’t exclusively for language - network - text to meaning

Question 25

embodied cognition predictions - neural observation

Answer 25

``` No single language area Language processing - peripheral systems Semantic system Language symbol reference system Activate what it refers to Text itself has no meaning ``` distributed - engage different brain symbols

Question 26

the homunculus

Answer 26

Which part of brain is activated by reading action words Brain is organised - homunculus Represents how much neural resources dedicated to control hand and faces Speech - neurons - complex articulatory gestures

Question 27

topographically organised motor cortex

Answer 27

Different parts of body are typographically mapped to different parts of your motor and somatosensory cortex Mapped in a spatially inverse relationship TMS machine - change magnetic field around coil - magnetic fields penetrate skiull and generate electric current to certain parts of the brain Disrupt the functions of that or activate that area - cause body movement Left brain - right half of body

Question 28

different parts of motor cortex active in fMRI when read different kind of action words

Answer 28

Motor cortex - somatosensory sensory cotrtex FMRI - mapping increases of oxygen level in different parts of the brain Asked people to make actual body movements in the scanner Different parts of motor cortex being activated by different action When read different action words If all words represented in binary code - should be represented in single symbolic system - not the case Understanding these actions involves th activations of the motor system Kicking - activates superior part of the motor or cortex Activation pattern slightly different from what happens in real action Understanding of different actions in language is also typographically organised Discredited the amodal symbol system which predicts that theres a central language processing are - not the case Distributed semantic system for action words

Question 29

single pulse TMS

Answer 29

Single pulse TMS Only make a single pulse each stimulation which will generate some kind of potential responses in different parts of the body - the nerve will transmit the signal to your hand or loge depending on which part of the motor cortex has been stimulated Stimulate either the right hand area or right foot area Record muscle responses from opponent sympolicis

Question 30

hand and leg

Answer 30

There’s a reverse pattern Depending on which motor area stimulating Stimulating hand - MEPS after reading hand action is smaller than foot Foot muscle activity is reduced after reading foot actions to hand actions It does make a difference depending on which motor system activating or stimulating and which type of actions your reading Match mismatch difference Why see reduction? If read kicking - engage foot muscle system - interferes with Mep - a response to single pulse TMS but not response to foot action Interference - reduction in activation Stimulation to different parts of motor cortex is differentially modulated by which kind of action words your listening to

Question 31

hand verbs -

Answer 31

motor evoked potentails smaller than leg

Question 32

foot verbs

Answer 32

hand muscle MEPs higher than foot

Question 33

reading vs multimodal experiences

Answer 33

No single language area for all these changes Character - temporal parietal temporal junction Goal - parietal frontal Object- dorsolateral prefrontal , motor area somatosensory parietal junction occipital temporal Time - mid prefrontal area

Question 34

do parkinsons patients have difficulties understanding actions in speech

Answer 34

Parkinson’s patients do have specific impairments in understanding actions - not just for literal actions but for metaphorical and idiomatic actions as well Suggests that although in the dictionary idiomatic action doesn’t mean pinching pennies but the way brain understands this Acton phrase is perhaps through simulations of the actual actions

Question 35

parkinsons vs control | abstract vs literal

Answer 35

Non distinguishable for control Patients overall slower - difficulty understanding Literal - longer than control

Question 36

parkinsons vs control | abstract vs metaphoric

Answer 36

Significant - metaphoric | Understood in terms of physical action - much slower

Question 37

parkinsons vs control | abstract vs idiomatic

Answer 37

Idiomatic - high frequency phrases Understood together rather than individual words Familiarity advantage Patients dont have the difference Delayed in Parkinson’s

Question 38

idiomatic action

Answer 38

description isnt fixed | mean something else

Question 39

abstract verb

Answer 39

doesnt involve motor body movement

Question 40

amodal represetnations

Answer 40

language doesnt use perception and action | a central language processing unit

Question 41

embodied representations

Answer 41

language and perception and action work togehter a distributed semantic system inference real world representation

Question 42

future research directions

Answer 42

Outstanding issues • Is all meaning represented in embodied experience? • Abstract concepts? • How flexible is mental simulation? What are the mechanisms? Reactivate reconstruct sensory information from memories Don’t know mechanisms Sensory systems Humans can create an internal world Reconstruct experience What could or might happen in future