Title

Knowledge representation in the human brain–The tales of sensorimotor and language experiences

Bio

北京师范大学认知神经科学与学习国家重点实验室、IDG/麦戈文脑科学研究院教授、PI。2006 年于哈佛大学心理学系认知-脑-行为专业获得博士学位。核心研究兴趣为语义记忆、知识表征和物体表征的认知神经基础。长江学者特聘教授、国家基金委杰青、优青、973 青年专项首席科学家。任 Elife, Cognition, Neurobiology of Language, Cognitive Neuropsychology 等杂志编委；Fulbright scholar；获美国心理学会 Observer 新星奖(Rising Star)等奖项。

Abstract

Human brain stores tremendous amount of knowledge about this world, which is the foundation of language, thought, and reasoning. What’s the neural codes of knowledge representation? Is the knowledge “roses are red” simply the memory trace of perceiving the color of roses, stored in the brain circuits within color-sensitive neurons? The knowledge of objects the composition of their multi-sensory attributes? What about knowledge that is not directly perceived by senses, such as “freedom” or “rationality”? I will present some work from my lab that addresses this issue using cognitive, neuroimaging, and neuropsychological methods with healthy subjects, individuals with sensory deprivation (blind and deaf) or with brain damage. The findings point to a highly distributed system incorporating two forms of representations: sensory-derived (embodied) and language-derived (symbolic), spanning across different neural systems.

推荐语

毕老师是学生们公认的“集美貌与智慧于一身的女神老板”；毕业于哈佛大学，师从研究人类语言和概念在大脑神经系统中表示的领军人物 Alfonso Caramazza。毕老师深耕于语义表征、概念知识的认知神经机制的研究，首次通过实验系统性地讲清楚了人脑表示知识的两个独立系统—感官发展的知识（具身）和语言发展的知识（符号），能够告诉我们为什么先天性盲人可以习得颜色。毕老师以 Dual coding of knowledge in the human brain 为题总结了这一系列工作，发表在 Trends in Cognitive Sciences（人类智能和人工智能研究者心目中共同的顶刊），并入选年度综述。希望童鞋们能在这次人类智能与人工智能的对话中看到思想碰撞产生的火花。