Description du projet
De nouveaux modèles biologiques pour répondre à des questions de longue date en linguistique
Alors que nos plus proches parents vivants utilisent généralement moins de 100 mots, les êtres humains peuvent construire des vocabulaires de dizaines de centaines de milliers de mots. Le projet MatCo, financé par l’UE, permettra de comprendre pourquoi. Il s’appuiera sur les nouvelles connaissances acquises en neurobiologie humaine. Ces connaissances seront traduites en modèles informatiques mathématiquement exacts afin d’identifier de nouvelles réponses à des questions de longue date en sciences cognitives, en linguistique et en philosophie. Le projet explorera également la manière dont le sens sémantique est mis en œuvre pour la gestuelle et les mots et, plus spécifiquement, pour les termes référentiels et catégoriels. Pour identifier les capacités cognitives humaines, MatCo développera des modèles reproduisant les différences structurelles entre les cerveaux des primates humains et non humains. Les résultats mettront en lumière les réseaux biologiquement contraints.
Objectif
Recent breakthroughs in comparative neurobiological research highlight specific features of the connectivity structure of the human brain, which open new perspectives on understanding the neural mechanisms of human-specific higher cognition and language. In delineating the material basis of human cognition and language, neurobiologically founded modelling appears as the method of choice, as it allows not only for ‘external fitting’ of models to key experimental data, but, in addition, for ‘internal’ or ‘material fitting’ of the model components to the structure of brains, cortical areas and neuronal circuits. This novel research pathway offers biologically well-founded and computationally precise perspectives on addressing exciting hitherto unanswered fundamental questions: How can humans build vocabularies of tens and hundreds of thousands of words, whereas our closest evolutionary relatives typically use below 100? How is semantic meaning implemented for gestures and words, and, more specifically, for referential and categorical terms? How can grounding and interpretability of abstract symbols be anchored biologically? Which features of connectivity between nerve cells are crucial for the formation of discrete representations and categorical combination? Would modelling of cognitive functions using brain-constrained networks allow for better predictions on brain activity indexing the processing of signs and their meaning? This project will use novel insights from human neurobiology translated into mathematically exact computational models to find new answers to long-standing questions in cognitive science, linguistics and philosophy. Models replicating structural differences between human and non-human primate brains will help delineate mechanisms underlying specifically human cognitive capacities. Key experiments will validate critical model predictions and new neurophysiological data will be applied to further improve the biologically-constrained networks.
Champ scientifique
Mots‑clés
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Régime de financement
ERC-ADG - Advanced GrantInstitution d’accueil
14195 Berlin
Allemagne