IUBio

Gesture and Language

Mindmaker mentifex at scn.org
Sat Jul 4 05:28:43 EST 1998


Robin Allott (RMAllott at percep.demon.co.uk) wrote on 03 Jul 1998:

> Recent work of Rizzolatti, Arbib and Gallese at the University
> of Parma, the discovery of mirror neurons in the premotor cortex,
> has suggested how directly gesture and language could be related
> in the evolution and functioning of the brain. See 'Language
> within our grasp' [Trends in Neuroscience 1998 May;21(5):188-194
> Rizzolatti and Arbib]. [...]
> [...] Along with MRI and PET scanning studies of brain language
> functions, this work lends new support to the motor theory of
> language origin and development based on the close integration
> in the brain of motor control, visual perception and articulation.
> [...] http://www.percep.demon.co.uk/gesture.htm
> [...] http://www.percep.demon.co.uk/mappfol.htm

  The standard (by default) model of the Unified Theory of Cognition
  http://www.scn.org/~mentifex/ for language function in the brain
  began with a VMHTS (Verbal Motor Habit Tagging System) but moved
  for theoretical purposes to a Chomskyan architecture of concepts:

  <PRE>
    Hearing    Vision    Concepts Volition Emotion   Motor Output
   /iiiiiii\  /!i!i!i!\                             /YYYYYYYYYYYY\
  | ||||||| || ||||||| |   T                       | |||||||||||| |
  | ||||||| || | ___ | |   +                       | |||||||||||| |
  | ||||||| ||  /old\  |   +                       | |S|||||||||| |
  | ||||||| || (image)-|---+_                      | |H|||||||||| |
  | ||||||| ||  \___/  |  /  \                     | |A|||||||||| |
  | ||||||| ||         | (idea)               __   | |K|||||||||| |
  | | ||||| ||         |  \__/---------------/  \  | |E|||R|||||| |
  | |d------||---------|---+        ____    (fear)-|--*|||U|||||| |
  | ||||o|| ||  _____  |   +-------/    \----\__/  | |||||N|||P|| |
  | ||g|||| || / re- \-|---+      / de-  \---------|------*|||E|| |
  | || |||| ||/entrant\|   +     (  ci-   )        | |||||||||T|| |
  | ||||||| ||\ image /|   +      \ sion /---------|----------*|| |
  | ||||||| || \_____/ |   +       \____/          | |||||||||||| |
  </PRE>



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