scholarly journals The Categorical Organization of Semantic and Lexical Knowledge in the Brain

1990 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 109-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guido Gainotti
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Lexical Knowledge ◽  
General Hypothesis ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
The Brain

In recent years several papers have shown that different verbal and non-verbal semantic categories can be selectively disrupted by brain damage and that consistent anatomical localizations correspond to each category-specific semantic disorder. This paper aims to suggest that the brain regions typically damaged in a given type of category-specific semantic disorder might be critically involved in processing the kind of information which mainly contributes to organizing that semantic category and to distinguishing among its members. This general hypothesis is discussed taking into account: (a) comprehension and production of object names (nouns) and of action names (verbs) in agrammatic and in anomic aphasic patients; (b) verbal and non-verbal identification of body parts; (c) verbal and non-verbal identification of living beings and of man made artefacts.

The co-occurrence of multisensory facilitation and cross-modal conflict in the human brain

2011 ◽  
Vol 106 (6) ◽  
pp. 2896-2909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreea Oliviana Diaconescu ◽  
Claude Alain ◽  
Anthony Randal McIntosh
Keyword(s):  
Multisensory Processing ◽  
Semantic Relatedness ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Stimulus Onset ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
Task Instructions ◽  
Specific Object ◽  
Posterior Parietal ◽  
Multisensory Processes

Perceptual objects often comprise a visual and auditory signature that arrives simultaneously through distinct sensory channels, and cross-modal features are linked by virtue of being attributed to a specific object. Continued exposure to cross-modal events sets up expectations about what a given object most likely “sounds” like, and vice versa, thereby facilitating object detection and recognition. The binding of familiar auditory and visual signatures is referred to as semantic, multisensory integration. Whereas integration of semantically related cross-modal features is behaviorally advantageous, situations of sensory dominance of one modality at the expense of another impair performance. In the present study, magnetoencephalography recordings of semantically related cross-modal and unimodal stimuli captured the spatiotemporal patterns underlying multisensory processing at multiple stages. At early stages, 100 ms after stimulus onset, posterior parietal brain regions responded preferentially to cross-modal stimuli irrespective of task instructions or the degree of semantic relatedness between the auditory and visual components. As participants were required to classify cross-modal stimuli into semantic categories, activity in superior temporal and posterior cingulate cortices increased between 200 and 400 ms. As task instructions changed to incorporate cross-modal conflict, a process whereby auditory and visual components of cross-modal stimuli were compared to estimate their degree of congruence, multisensory processes were captured in parahippocampal, dorsomedial, and orbitofrontal cortices 100 and 400 ms after stimulus onset. Our results suggest that multisensory facilitation is associated with posterior parietal activity as early as 100 ms after stimulus onset. However, as participants are required to evaluate cross-modal stimuli based on their semantic category or their degree of congruence, multisensory processes extend in cingulate, temporal, and prefrontal cortices.

scholarly journals Focal Brain Lesions to Critical Locations Cause Widespread Disruption of the Modular Organization of the Brain

2012 ◽  
Vol 24 (6) ◽  
pp. 1275-1285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Caterina Gratton ◽  
Emi M. Nomura ◽  
Fernando Pérez ◽  
Mark D'Esposito
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Resting State Fmri ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Brain Network ◽  
Brain Lesions ◽  
Modular Organization ◽  
Network Organization ◽  
Functional Deficits ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Critical Locations

Although it is generally assumed that brain damage predominantly affects only the function of the damaged region, here we show that focal damage to critical locations causes disruption of network organization throughout the brain. Using resting state fMRI, we assessed whole-brain network structure in patients with focal brain lesions. Only damage to those brain regions important for communication between subnetworks (e.g., “connectors”)—but not to those brain regions important for communication within sub-networks (e.g., “hubs”)—led to decreases in modularity, a measure of the integrity of network organization. Critically, this network dysfunction extended into the structurally intact hemisphere. Thus, focal brain damage can have a widespread, nonlocal impact on brain network organization when there is damage to regions important for the communication between networks. These findings fundamentally revise our understanding of the remote effects of focal brain damage and may explain numerous puzzling cases of functional deficits that are observed following brain injury.

scholarly journals An Embodied Account of Argument Structure Development

2010 ◽  
Vol 36 (1) ◽  
pp. 261
Author(s):  
Josita Maouene ◽  
Nitya Sethuraman ◽  
Mounir Maoene ◽  
Linda B. Smith
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Argument Structure ◽  
Body Part ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
The Body ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Structure Development ◽  
Body Experiences ◽  
Verb Meaning ◽  
The Brain

In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt:All information enters the cognitive system through the body. Thus, it is possible that the body—and its morphology—may play a role in structurng knowledge and acquisition. This idea is particularly cogent in the case of verbs, since early learned verbs are about bodily actions and since recent advanc-es in cognitive neuroscience (Pulvermueller, 2005; James and Maouene, 2009) indicate that the neural processing of common verbs activates the brain regions responsible for the specific body parts that perform those actions. Here we provide initial evidence these body-part verb relations may also be related to the argument structures associated with specific verbs. We will conclude that in the same way that verb meaning and argument structure develop out of correlations in linguistic experiences, they may also develop out of correlations in body experiences. 

scholarly journals Time to Face Language: Embodied Mechanisms Underpin the Inception of Face-Related Meanings in the Human Brain

2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (11) ◽  
pp. 6051-6068 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adolfo M García ◽  
Eugenia Hesse ◽  
Agustina Birba ◽  
Federico Adolfi ◽  
Ezequiel Mikulan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Face Processing ◽  
Network Activity ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Conceptual Systems ◽  
Intracranial Eeg ◽  
N170 Amplitude ◽  
Semantic Categories ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Processing Network

Abstract In construing meaning, the brain recruits multimodal (conceptual) systems and embodied (modality-specific) mechanisms. Yet, no consensus exists on how crucial the latter are for the inception of semantic distinctions. To address this issue, we combined electroencephalographic (EEG) and intracranial EEG (iEEG) to examine when nouns denoting facial body parts (FBPs) and nonFBPs are discriminated in face-processing and multimodal networks. First, FBP words increased N170 amplitude (a hallmark of early facial processing). Second, they triggered fast (~100 ms) activity boosts within the face-processing network, alongside later (~275 ms) effects in multimodal circuits. Third, iEEG recordings from face-processing hubs allowed decoding ~80% of items before 200 ms, while classification based on multimodal-network activity only surpassed ~70% after 250 ms. Finally, EEG and iEEG connectivity between both networks proved greater in early (0–200 ms) than later (200–400 ms) windows. Collectively, our findings indicate that, at least for some lexico-semantic categories, meaning is construed through fast reenactments of modality-specific experience.

scholarly journals Neuronal connectivity, regional differentiation, and brain damage in humans

1999 ◽  
Vol 22 (5) ◽  
pp. 854-855
Author(s):  
Dahlia W. Zaidel
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Psychology ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Human Behavior ◽  
Cognitive Neuroscience ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cerebral Hemispheres ◽  
Regional Differentiation ◽  
Neuronal Connectivity ◽  
Left And Right ◽  
The Brain

When circumscribed brain regions are damaged in humans, highly specific impairments in language, memory, problem solving, and cognition are observed. Neurosurgery such as “split brain” or hemispherectomy, for example, has shown that encompassing regions, the left and right cerebral hemispheres, each control human behavior in unique ways. Observations stretching over 100 years of patients with unilateral focal brain damage have revealed, without the theoretical benefits of “cognitive neuroscience” or “cognitive psychology,” that human behavior is indeed controlled by the brain and its neurons.

scholarly journals Neuroanatomical dissociations of syntax and semantics revealed by lesion-symptom mapping

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Matchin ◽  
Alexandra Basilakos ◽  
Dirk-Bart den Ouden ◽  
Brielle C. Stark ◽  
Gregory Hickok ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Inferior Frontal Gyrus ◽  
Semantic Category ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Angular Gyrus ◽  
Middle Temporal Gyrus ◽  
Word Fluency ◽  
Specific Language Impairments ◽  
Lesion Symptom Mapping ◽  
High Level

AbstractIn the early and mid 1800s, scientists debated whether the human brain was functionally differentiated with respect to cognition. The issue was largely resolved when specific language impairments were identified following focal patterns of brain damage. However, neuroimaging has revived this discussion, as many studies find similar syntactic and semantic effects across the set of brain regions implicated in language. Here we address this modern debate using lesion-symptom mapping in two large, partially-overlapping groups of people with left hemisphere brain damage due to stroke (N=121, N=92). We identified multiple measure by region interaction effects, associating damage to the posterior middle temporal gyrus with syntactic comprehension deficits, damage to posterior inferior frontal gyrus with expressive agrammatism, and damage to inferior angular gyrus with semantic category word fluency deficits. Our results are inconsistent with recent hypotheses that regions of the language network play similar roles in high-level linguistic processing.

scholarly journals You Can Observe a Lot by Watching: Hughlings Jackson’s Underappreciated and Prescient Ideas about Brain Control of Movement

2018 ◽  
Vol 24 (5) ◽  
pp. 448-455
Author(s):  
Ari Berkowitz
Keyword(s):  
Frontal Lobe ◽  
19Th Century ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Seizure Focus ◽  
Somatotopic Organization ◽  
The 19Th Century ◽  
The Brain

John Hughlings Jackson, the 19th-century British neurologist, first described what are today called Jacksonian seizures. He is generally associated with somatotopy, the idea that neighboring brain regions control neighboring body parts, as later represented pictorially in Wilder Penfield’s “homunculus,” or little man in the brain. Jackson’s own views, however, were quite different, though this is seldom appreciated. In an 1870 article, Jackson advanced the hypotheses that each region of the cerebrum controls movements of multiple body parts, but to different degrees, and that the “march” of movements that typically occurs during Jacksonian seizures is caused by the downstream connections of the overactive neurons at the seizure focus, rather than a somatotopic organization of the cerebrum. Jackson’s hypotheses, which were based almost entirely on his careful observations of movements during seizures, are well within the range of current hypotheses about how the frontal lobe is organized to control movements and thus deserve renewed attention.

scholarly journals Cerebellar Purkinje cell microcircuits are essential for tremor

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amanda M Brown ◽  
Joshua J White ◽  
Meike E van der Heijden ◽  
Tao Lin ◽  
Roy V Sillitoe
Keyword(s):  
Purkinje Cell ◽  
Cell Activity ◽  
Cerebellar Nuclei ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Cerebellar Purkinje Cell ◽  
Body Parts ◽  
Neural Signals ◽  
Neural Substrate ◽  
Cell Firing ◽  
The Brain

AbstractTremor is currently ranked as the most common movement disorder. The brain regions and neural signals that initiate the debilitating shakiness of different body parts remain unclear. Here, we found that genetically silencing cerebellar Purkinje cell activity blocked tremor in mice that were given the tremorgenic drug harmaline. We show in awake behaving mice that the onset of tremor is coincident with rhythmic Purkinje cell firing, which alters the output of their target cerebellar nuclei cells. We mimic the tremorgenic action of the drug with optogenetics and present evidence that highly patterned Purkinje cell activity drives a powerful tremor in otherwise normal mice. Modulating the altered activity with deep brain stimulation directed to the Purkinje cell output in the cerebellar nuclei reduced tremor in freely moving mice. Together, the data implicate Purkinje cell connectivity as a neural substrate for tremor and a gateway for signals that mediate the disease.

Rehabilitation of Attention

2003 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian H. Robertson
Keyword(s):  
Brain Damage ◽  
Dependent Plasticity ◽  
Attention Systems ◽  
The Brain

Abstract: In this paper, evidence is reviewed for separable attention systems in the brain, and it is argued a) that attention may have a privileged role in mediating experience dependent plasticity in the brain and b) that at least some types of attention may be capable of rehabilitation following brain damage.

Musical Anhedonia

2020 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 62-68
Author(s):  
Sara E. Holm ◽  
Alexander Schmidt ◽  
Christoph J. Ploner
Keyword(s):  
Quality Of Life ◽  
Nucleus Accumbens ◽  
Brain Damage ◽  
Parietal Cortex ◽  
Neurological Disorders ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Precise Information ◽  
Exact Localization ◽  
High Prevalence

Abstract. Some people, although they are perfectly healthy and happy, cannot enjoy music. These individuals have musical anhedonia, a condition which can be congenital or may occur after focal brain damage. To date, only a few cases of acquired musical anhedonia have been reported in the literature with lesions of the temporo-parietal cortex being particularly important. Even less literature exists on congenital musical anhedonia, in which impaired connectivity of temporal brain regions with the Nucleus accumbens is implicated. Nonetheless, there is no precise information on the prevalence, causes or exact localization of both congenital and acquired musical anhedonia. However, the frequent involvement of temporo-parietal brain regions in neurological disorders such as stroke suggest the possibility of a high prevalence of this disorder, which leads to a considerable reduction in the quality of life.

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