scholarly journals The Leading Role of the Language Phenomenon in Brain Activity

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
pp. 47-55
Author(s):  
Minaxanum Hajiyeva

One of the most prime examples of a multidisciplinary field, Cognitive Linguistics explores language as a cognitive mechanism in the coding and transformation of information. On the other hand, Neurolinguistics, combining two major sciences and studying the functional course of consciousness, deals with cognitive processes and the relationship between the brain and them. In the scientific development of its history, a number of different research areas related to the study of the functionality of the brain hemispheres are noteworthy. The different functions in the brain mechanism benefit from cognition, concepts, conceptspheres, and other necessary elements. Cognitive linguistics dealing with the illumination of these functions tries to highlight the aspects of language activity, seeing as how one of the important keys to reflecting the programmed mechanism of the brain is language-related activities. The main purpose of the research is to determine the relationship between the functionality of the language phenomenon and the brain mechanism.

Author(s):  
Hans Liljenström

AbstractWhat is the role of consciousness in volition and decision-making? Are our actions fully determined by brain activity preceding our decisions to act, or can consciousness instead affect the brain activity leading to action? This has been much debated in philosophy, but also in science since the famous experiments by Libet in the 1980s, where the current most common interpretation is that conscious free will is an illusion. It seems that the brain knows, up to several seconds in advance what “you” decide to do. These studies have, however, been criticized, and alternative interpretations of the experiments can be given, some of which are discussed in this paper. In an attempt to elucidate the processes involved in decision-making (DM), as an essential part of volition, we have developed a computational model of relevant brain structures and their neurodynamics. While DM is a complex process, we have particularly focused on the amygdala and orbitofrontal cortex (OFC) for its emotional, and the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) for its cognitive aspects. In this paper, we present a stochastic population model representing the neural information processing of DM. Simulation results seem to confirm the notion that if decisions have to be made fast, emotional processes and aspects dominate, while rational processes are more time consuming and may result in a delayed decision. Finally, some limitations of current science and computational modeling will be discussed, hinting at a future development of science, where consciousness and free will may add to chance and necessity as explanation for what happens in the world.


2014 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 154-164 ◽  
Author(s):  
Danya Glaser

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to outline brain structure and development, the relationship between environment and brain development and implications for practice. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a selected review of the literature and clinical experience. Findings – While genetics determine the sequence of brain maturation, the nature of brain development and functioning is determined by the young child's caregiving environment, to which the developing brain constantly adapts. The absence of input during sensitive periods may lead to later reduced functioning. There is an undoubted immediate equivalence between every mind function – emotion, cognition, behaviour and brain activity, although the precise location of this in the brain is only very partially determinable, since brain connections and function are extremely complex. Originality/value – This paper provides an overview of key issues in neurodevelopment relating to the development of young children, and implications for policy and practice.


2012 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-26
Author(s):  
Hans Goller

Neuroscientists keep telling us that the brain produces consciousness and consciousness does not survive brain death because it ceases when brain activity ceases. Research findings on near-death-experiences during cardiac arrest contradict this widely held conviction. They raise perplexing questions with regard to our current understanding of the relationship between consciousness and brain functions. Reports on veridical perceptions during out-of-body experiences suggest that consciousness may be experienced independently of a functioning brain and that self-consciousness may continue even after the termination of brain activity. Data on studies of near-death-experiences could be an incentive to develop alternative theories of the body-mind relation as seen in contemporary neuroscience.


2006 ◽  
Vol 16 (10) ◽  
pp. 1045-1050
Author(s):  
Song Weiqun ◽  
Lou Yuejia ◽  
Chi Song ◽  
Ji Xunming ◽  
Ling Feng ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
pp. 102-106
Author(s):  
Claudia Menzel ◽  
Gyula Kovács ◽  
Gregor U. Hayn-Leichsenring ◽  
Christoph Redies

Most artists who create abstract paintings place the pictorial elements not at random, but arrange them intentionally in a specific artistic composition. This arrangement results in a pattern of image properties that differs from image versions in which the same pictorial elements are randomly shuffled. In the article under discussion, the original abstract paintings of the author’s image set were rated as more ordered and harmonious but less interesting than their shuffled counterparts. The authors tested whether the human brain distinguishes between these original and shuffled images by recording electrical brain activity in a particular paradigm that evokes a so-called visual mismatch negativity. The results revealed that the brain detects the differences between the two types of images fast and automatically. These findings are in line with models that postulate a significant role of early (low-level) perceptual processing of formal image properties in aesthetic evaluations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (24) ◽  
pp. eaba8792 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Zhang ◽  
Wei Xiao ◽  
Yudong Ding ◽  
Yulong Feng ◽  
Xiang Peng ◽  
...  

Understanding the relationship between brain activity and specific mental function is important for medical diagnosis of brain symptoms, such as epilepsy. Magnetoencephalography (MEG), which uses an array of high-sensitivity magnetometers to record magnetic field signals generated from neural currents occurring naturally in the brain, is a noninvasive method for locating the brain activities. The MEG is normally performed in a magnetically shielded room. Here, we introduce an unshielded MEG system based on optically pumped atomic magnetometers. We build an atomic magnetic gradiometer, together with feedback methods, to reduce the environment magnetic field noise. We successfully observe the alpha rhythm signals related to closed eyes and clear auditory evoked field signals in unshielded Earth’s field. Combined with improvements in the miniaturization of the atomic magnetometer, our method is promising to realize a practical wearable and movable unshielded MEG system and bring new insights into medical diagnosis of brain symptoms.


2021 ◽  
Vol 11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dylan T. Lott ◽  
Tenzin Yeshi ◽  
N. Norchung ◽  
Sonam Dolma ◽  
Nyima Tsering ◽  
...  

Recent EEG studies on the early postmortem interval that suggest the persistence of electrophysiological coherence and connectivity in the brain of animals and humans reinforce the need for further investigation of the relationship between the brain’s activity and the dying process. Neuroscience is now in a position to empirically evaluate the extended process of dying and, more specifically, to investigate the possibility of brain activity following the cessation of cardiac and respiratory function. Under the direction of the Center for Healthy Minds at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, research was conducted in India on a postmortem meditative state cultivated by some Tibetan Buddhist practitioners in which decomposition is putatively delayed. For all healthy baseline (HB) and postmortem (PM) subjects presented here, we collected resting state electroencephalographic data, mismatch negativity (MMN), and auditory brainstem response (ABR). In this study, we present HB data to demonstrate the feasibility of a sparse electrode EEG configuration to capture well-defined ERP waveforms from living subjects under very challenging field conditions. While living subjects displayed well-defined MMN and ABR responses, no recognizable EEG waveforms were discernable in any of the tukdam cases.


2019 ◽  
Vol 77 (8) ◽  
pp. 1531-1550 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katarzyna Walczak ◽  
Artur Wnorowski ◽  
Waldemar A. Turski ◽  
Tomasz Plech

Abstract Kynurenic acid (KYNA) is an endogenous tryptophan metabolite exerting neuroprotective and anticonvulsant properties in the brain. However, its importance on the periphery is still not fully elucidated. KYNA is produced endogenously in various types of peripheral cells, tissues and by gastrointestinal microbiota. Furthermore, it was found in several products of daily human diet and its absorption in the digestive tract was evidenced. More recent studies were focused on the potential role of KYNA in carcinogenesis and cancer therapy; however, the results were ambiguous and the biological activity of KYNA in these processes has not been unequivocally established. This review aims to summarize the current views on the relationship between KYNA and cancer. The differences in KYNA concentration between physiological conditions and cancer, as well as KYNA production by both normal and cancer cells, will be discussed. The review also describes the effect of KYNA on cancer cell proliferation and the known potential molecular mechanisms of this activity.


Author(s):  
Mark A.R. Kleiman ◽  
Jonathan P. Caulkins ◽  
Angela Hawken

While there have always been norms and customs around the use of drugs, explicit public policies--regulations, taxes, and prohibitions--designed to control drug abuse are a more recent phenomenon. Those policies sometimes have terrible side-effects: most prominently the development of criminal enterprises dealing in forbidden (or untaxed) drugs and the use of the profits of drug-dealing to finance insurgency and terrorism. Neither a drug-free world nor a world of free drugs seems to be on offer, leaving citizens and officials to face the age-old problem: What are we going to do about drugs? In Drugs and Drug Policy, three noted authorities survey the subject with exceptional clarity, in this addition to the acclaimed series, What Everyone Needs to Know. They begin by, defining "drugs, " examining how they work in the brain, discussing the nature of addiction, and exploring the damage they do to users. The book moves on to policy, answering questions about legalization, the role of criminal prohibitions, and the relative legal tolerance for alcohol and tobacco. The authors then dissect the illicit trade, from street dealers to the flow of money to the effect of catching kingpins, and show the precise nature of the relationship between drugs and crime. They examine treatment, both its effectiveness and the role of public policy, and discuss the beneficial effects of some abusable substances. Finally they move outward to look at the role of drugs in our foreign policy, their relationship to terrorism, and the ugly politics that surround the issue. Crisp, clear, and comprehensive, this is a handy and up-to-date overview of one of the most pressing topics in today's world.


2016 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 587-602 ◽  
Author(s):  
William Croft

AbstractThe relationship between typology and Cognitive Linguistics was first posed in the 1980s, in terms of the relationship between Greenbergian universals and the knowledge of the individual speaker. An answer to this question emerges from understanding the role of linguistic variation in language, from occasions of language use to typological diversity. This in turn requires the contribution of discourse analysis, sociolinguistics, and evolutionary historical linguistics as well as typology and Cognitive Linguistics. While Cognitive Linguistics is part of this enterprise, a theory of language that integrates all of these approaches is necessary.


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