Simulating word learning, semantic grounding, and oscillatory responses to linguistic items in a neurobiologically constrained model of the cortex

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• Dr Max Garagnani, Lecturer in Computer Science, Co-Director of the MSc in Computational Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Computing, Goldsmiths, University of London
• Friday 04 May 2018, 16:30-17:30
• Ground Floor Lecture Theatre, Department of Psychology.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Louise White.

I will highlight a neurocomputational architecture of left-hemispheric cortical areas that we developed to simulate and explain brain correlates of word learning and semantic grounding. The model’s main distinguishing features are that it (i) replicates connectivity and anatomical structure of the relevant brain areas, and (ii) implements only functional mechanisms reflecting known cellular- and synaptic-level properties of the cerebral cortex. I will illustrate how stimulation of the “sensorimotor” model areas (mimicking early stages of word acquisition) leads to the spontaneous formation of network correlates of memory traces for words. I will then argue that, without any significant changes, the same architecture can explain a range of experimental data and phenomena in the language as well as other domains. Accordingly, I will suggest a unifying model of cognition based on action-perception circuits whose emergence, dynamics and interactions are grounded in known neuroanatomy and neurobiological learning mechanisms.

This talk is part of the Zangwill Club series.

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