Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Semantics and Brain course - reading set #6

We're getting a bit tired of reading about semantic dementia (as interesting as it is), so for our next meeting we will be reading papers on semantic memory/organization in the brain that aren't necessarily derived from SD research. Our next meeting will be Monday Feb. 25, so commentaries on these papers will appear after that date. (Comments on the last set of readings will start appearing this week...)

There are 7 papers here, representing (hopefully) a range of ideas. We will start with one of my favorite theorists on the neural organization of semantic memory: Carl Wernicke. Yes, that's right, he didn't just do language. Although Wernicke hinted at his views on the topic in his classic language writings, his most thorough description of his theory was published in 1900 in a volume titled, Grundriss der Psychiatrie. This volume has not been translated into English except for a few portions which appear in Gage & Hickok (2005). Skip the commentary and just read the excerpts -- I think you will find Wernicke's ideas to be extremely modern-sounding.

Gage N, Hickok G.
Multiregional cell assemblies, temporal binding and the representation of
conceptual knowledge in cortex: a modern theory by a "classical" neurologist,
Carl Wernicke.
Cortex. 2005 Dec;41(6):823-32. Review.

Saumier D, Chertkow H.
Semantic memory.
Curr Neurol Neurosci Rep. 2002 Nov;2(6):516-22. Review.

Caramazza A, Mahon BZ.
The organization of conceptual knowledge: the evidence from category-specific
semantic deficits.
Trends Cogn Sci. 2003 Aug;7(8):354-361.

Thompson-Schill SL.
Neuroimaging studies of semantic memory: inferring "how" from "where".
Neuropsychologia. 2003;41(3):280-92. Review.

Patterson K.
The reign of typicality in semantic memory.
Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2007 May 29;362(1481):813-21. Review.
Martin A.
The representation of object concepts in the brain.
Annu Rev Psychol. 2007;58:25-45.

Hart J Jr, Anand R, Zoccoli S, Maguire M, Gamino J, Tillman G, King R, Kraut
MA.
Neural substrates of semantic memory.
J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2007 Sep;13(5):865-80. Review.

3 comments:

Jerry said...

Although I didn't catch up with my readings in the Semantics and Brain course I'm looking forward to "Talking Brains live" this Friday.

Greg Hickok said...

"Talking Brains Live" -- pretty funny. Please introduce yourself jerry. :-)

Jerry said...

I'm just a London-(ie. Queen Square)-based postgrad interested in combining brain and mind, imaging and language, linguistics and neuroscience. Looking forward to your talk in the brain meeting. Have a good trip (if you're not already here).