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Language and Brain Complexity

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Language in Complexity

Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis ((LECTMORPH))

Abstract

Humans understand their language thanks to brain processes, and one of the most ambitious endeavors  of neurolinguistics is that of bridging the gap between the bare physiology of the brain and linguistic meaning. The aim of this chapter is to elucidate concepts that may help in bridging this gap, through the lens of brain complexity. Unlike several other chapters of this book, our effort is in analyzing complexity in the brain, and in particular, in brain circuits that support language, rather than in language itself, as an abstract entity. The account we offer for brain complexity in relation to language is presented in terms of self-organization, the general phenomenon of the gradual change of local parts of a system, that lead to their interactions become more functional with respect to their initial arrangement. Forms of neural self-organization appear to be essential in scaffolding representations of the external world within cortical areas, and mathematical formulations of self-organization at the level of the cerebral cortex will be described. We will present examples of models based on self-organization that reproduce specific aspects of the semantics of language. These models are examples of a research direction called “neurosemantics”, an enterprise focused on explaining the development of semantics by concentrating on the constituent neural processes.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Cognive Science, University of Messina, V. Acicastello 15, 95126, Catania, Italy

    Alessio Plebe

  2. Department of Educational Sciences, University of Catania, via Teatro Greco 84, 95124, Catania, Italy

    Vivian M. De La Cruz

Authors
  1. Alessio Plebe
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  2. Vivian M. De La Cruz
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Correspondence to Alessio Plebe .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche, Università di Palermo Dipartimento di Scienze Umanistiche, Palermo, Italy

    Francesco La Mantia

  2. Institute for Scientific Methodology ISEM c/o CNR, Palermo, Italy

    Ignazio Licata

  3. Dipartimento di scienze Cognitive, Università di Messina Dipartimento di scienze Cognitive, Messina, Italy

    Pietro Perconti

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Plebe, A., De La Cruz, V.M. (2017). Language and Brain Complexity. In: La Mantia, F., Licata, I., Perconti, P. (eds) Language in Complexity. Lecture Notes in Morphogenesis. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29483-4_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-29483-4_10

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