PowerPoint PresentationSlide 2Slide 3Slide 4Slide 5Slide 6Slide 7Slide 8Slide 9Slide 10Slide 11Slide 12Slide 13Slide 14Slide 15Slide 16Slide 17Slide 18Slide 19Slide 20Slide 21Slide 22Slide 23Slide 24Slide 25Area F5Slide 27Slide 28Slide 29Slide 30Slide 31Area F5cF5 Mirror NeuronsSlide 34Slide 35Slide 36Slide 37Slide 38Slide 39Slide 40The Mirror System in HumansThe Simulation HypothesisSlide 43Slide 44Slide 45Slide 46Area F5abSlide 48Slide 49Slide 50Slide 51Slide 52Slide 53Area F4Slide 55Slide 56Slide 57Somato-Centered Bimodal RFs in area F4Slide 59Slide 60Slide 61Slide 62Slide 63Slide 64Slide 65Slide 66Slide 67Slide 68Slide 69Slide 70Slide 71Slide 72Slide 73Slide 74Slide 75Slide 76Slide 77Slide 78Slide 79Slide 80Slide 81Slide 82Slide 83Slide 84Slide 85Slide 86Slide 87Slide 88Slide 89Slide 90Slide 91Slide 92The Brain’s ConceptsThe Role of the Sensory-Motor System in Reason and LanguageGeorge LakoffUniversity of California, Berkeley(with Vittorio Gallese)With Thanks toThe Neural Theory of Language GroupInternational Computer Science InstituteUniversity of California, BerkeleyEspecially Jerry Feldman, Srini Narayanan,Lokendra Shastri, and Nancy Chang.http://www.icsi.berkeley.edu/NTLWhat Concepts Are: Basic ConstraintsConcepts are the elements of reason, and constitute the meanings of words and linguistic expressions.The Traditional TheoryReason and language are what distinguish human beings from other animals.Concepts therefore use only human-specific brain mechanisms.Reason is separate from perception and action, and does not make direct use of the sensory-motor system.Concepts must be “disembodied” in this sense.We ClaimHuman concepts are embodied. Many concepts make direct use of the sensory-motor capacities of our body-brain system.Many of these capacities are also present in non-human primates.One example, the concept of grasping, will be discussed in detail.AmodalityThe traditional theory implicitly claims that even action concepts, like grasp, do not make use of the sensory-motor system. As a concept, even grasp must be disembodied. Thus, it is claimed that the concept grasp is amodal. Since it is a concept, it must be modality-free, even if it designates an action in a specific modality.Concepts Are:•Universal: they characterize all particular instances; e.g., the concept of grasping is the same no matter who the agent is or what the patient is or how it is done.•Stable. •Internally structured. •Compositional.•Inferential. They interact to give rise to inferences.•Relational. They may be related by hyponymy, antonymy, etc.•Meaningful. •Independent of the words used to express them.Concepts may be either ‘concrete’ (sensory-motor)or ‘abstract’ (not sensory-motor).Basic Ideas•Multimodality — Permits universality•Functional Clusters — High-level, function as conceptual units•Simulation — Necessary for meaningfulness and contextual inference•Parameters — Govern simulation, strict inference, link to languageMultimodalityThe action of grasping is not amodal, but multi-modal in a way that makes for universality.Functional ClustersFunctional clusters form high-level units — with the internal relational structure required by concepts.There are two types: Local clusters and Network clusters.Multi-modality is realized in the brain through network clusters, that is, parallel parietal-premotor networks.Network clusters are formed by interconnected local clusters of neurons, like canonical and mirror neurons.SimulationTo understand the meaning of the concept grasp, one must at least be able to imagine oneself or someone else grasping an object. Imagination is mental simulation, carried out by the same functional clusters used in acting and perceiving. The conceptualization of grasping via simulation therefore requires the use of the same functional clusters used in the action and perception of grasping.Simulation and EnactmentVisual imagination uses part of the same neural substrateas vision.Motor imagination uses part of the same neural substrate is motor action.Since you can understand a concrete concept like grasping only if you can imagine doing it or observing it,the capacity for mental simulation is taken as the basis formeaningfulness.Thus, action and observation provide the basis for meaningfulness in NTL.Parameters All actions, perceptions, and simulations make use of parameters and their values. Such neural parameterization is pervasive.E.g., the action of reaching for an object makes use of the parameter of direction; the action of grasping an object makes use of the parameter of force. The same parameter values that characterize the internal structure of actions and simulations of actions also characterize the internal structure of action concepts.Structured Neural Computation in NTLThe theory we are outlining uses the computational modeling mechanisms of the Neural Theory of Language (NTL). NTL makes use of structured connectionism (Not PDP connectionism!). NTL is ‘localist,’ with functional clusters as units. Localism allows NTL to characterize precise computations, as needed in actions and in inferences.Because it uses functional clusters, NTL is not subject to the “grandmother cell” objection.Advantages of Structured ConnectionismStructured connectionism operates on structures of the sort found in real brains. From the structured connectionism perspective, the inferential structure of concepts is a consequence of the network structure of the brain and its organization in terms of functional clusters.Structured Connectionism comes with:•A dynamic simulation mechanism that adapts parameter values to situations.•A neural binding theory. •A spreading-activation probabilistic inference mechanism that applies to functional clusters.These jointly allow for the modeling of both sensory-motor simulations and inference.In NTL, there are fixed structures called schemas.For example, a schema that structures an action hasan internal structure consisting of Roles, Parameters,and Phases.The ideas of Multimodality, Functional Clusters, Simulation, and Parameters allow us to link NTL, with structured connectionism, to neuroscience.The Neuroscience Evidence ShowsIn the sensory-motor system, it is possible tocharacterize these aspects of concepts: •Universality•Semantic Role Structure•Aspectual Structure (Phases)•Parameter StructureThe ConceptOfGraspingUniversality Is Achieved by