Coherent concepts are computed in the anterior temporal lobes

In his Philosophical Investigations, Wittgenstein famously noted that the formation of semantic representations requires more than a simple combination of verbal and nonverbal features to generate conceptually based similarities and differences. Classical and contemporary neuroscience has tended to focus upon how different neocortical regions contribute to conceptualization through the summation of modality-specific information. The additional yet critical step of computing coherent concepts has received little attention. Some computational models of semantic memory are able to generate such concepts by the addition of modality-invariant information coded in a multidimensional semantic space. By studying patients with semantic dementia, we demonstrate that this aspect of semantic memory becomes compromised following atrophy of the anterior temporal lobes and, as a result, the patients become increasingly influenced by superficial rather than conceptual similarities.

[1]  J. Raven.  Coloured progressive matrices : sets A, Ab, B , 1956 .

[2]  E. Warrington.  Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology the Selective Impairment of Semantic Memory the Selective Impairment of Semantic Memory , 2022 .

[3]  E. Rosch.  Cognitive Representations of Semantic Categories. , 1975 .

[4]  C. Wernicke,et al.  Wernicke's works on aphasia. A sourcebook and review , 1979, Medical History.

[5]  Edward E. Smith,et al.  Categories and concepts , 1984 .

[6]  D. Medin,et al.  The role of theories in conceptual coherence. , 1985, Psychological review.

[7]  M. Mesulam,et al.  Neural inputs into the temporopolar cortex of the rhesus monkey , 1987, The Journal of comparative neurology.

[8]  J. Hodges,et al.  Semantic dementia. Progressive fluent aphasia with temporal lobe atrophy. , 1992, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[9]  T. Shallice,et al.  Deep Dyslexia: A Case Study of , 1993 .

[10]  Richard S. J. Frackowiak,et al.  Functional anatomy of a common semantic system for words and pictures , 1996, Nature.

[11]  P. Gloor.  The Temporal Lobe and Limbic System , 1997 .

[12]  L. Rapport,et al.  Validation of the Warrington theory of visual processing and the Visual Object and Space Perception Battery. , 1998, Journal of clinical and experimental neuropsychology.

[13]  David Howard,et al.  GOGI APHASIA OR SEMANTIC DEMENTIA? SIMULATING AND ASSESSING POOR VERBAL COMPREHENSION IN A CASE OF PROGRESSIVE FLUENT APHASIA , 2000, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[14]  J. Hodges,et al.  Non-verbal semantic impairment in semantic dementia , 2000, Neuropsychologia.

[15]  J. Guérit,et al.  The temporal lobe and the limbic system, P. Gloor (Ed.). Oxford University Press (1997), 865 , 2000 .

[16]  James L. McClelland,et al.  No Right to Speak? The Relationship between Object Naming and Semantic Impairment:Neuropsychological Evidence and a Computational Model , 2001, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.

[17]  D. Plaut.  Graded modality-specific specialisation in semantics: A computational account of optic aphasia , 2002, Cognitive neuropsychology.

[18]  R. Wise,et al.  Language systems in normal and aphasic human subjects: functional imaging studies and inferences from animal studies. , 2003, British medical bulletin.

[19]  Christine D. Wilson,et al.  Grounding conceptual knowledge in modality-specific systems , 2003, Trends in Cognitive Sciences.

[20]  Valerie A. Carr,et al.  Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Modality-Specific and Supramodal Word Processing , 2003, Neuron.

[21]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Structure and deterioration of semantic memory: a neuropsychological and computational investigation. , 2004, Psychological review.

[22]  James L. McClelland,et al.  Semantic Cognition: A Parallel Distributed Processing Approach , 2004 .

[23]  Friedemann Pulvermüller,et al.  Brain mechanisms linking language and action , 2005, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[24]  Tim D. Fryer,et al.  Declarative memory impairments in Alzheimer's disease and semantic dementia , 2006, NeuroImage.

[25]  John R Hodges,et al.  The Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination Revised (ACE‐R): a brief cognitive test battery for dementia screening , 2006, International journal of geriatric psychiatry.

[26]  B. Mesquita,et al.  Adjustment to Chronic Diseases and Terminal Illness Health Psychology : Psychological Adjustment to Chronic Disease , 2006 .

[27]  T. Rogers,et al.  Neural basis of category-specific semantic deficits for living things: evidence from semantic dementia, HSVE and a neural network model. , 2006, Brain : a journal of neurology.

[28]  E. Jefferies,et al.  Anterior temporal lobes mediate semantic representation: Mimicking semantic dementia by using rTMS in normal participants , 2007, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

[29]  T. Rogers,et al.  Where do you know what you know? The representation of semantic knowledge in the human brain , 2007, Nature Reviews Neuroscience.

[30]  M. L. Lambon Ralph,et al.  Generalization and Differentiation in Semantic Memory , 2008, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences.

[31]  M. Catani,et al.  A diffusion tensor imaging tractography atlas for virtual in vivo dissections , 2008, Cortex.

[32]  Karalyn Patterson,et al.  Anomia: A doubly typical signature of semantic dementia , 2008, Neuropsychologia.

[33]  M. L. Lambon Ralph,et al.  Conceptual knowledge is underpinned by the temporal pole bilaterally: convergent evidence from rTMS. , 2009, Cerebral cortex.

[34]  Roy W Jones,et al.  Comprehension of concrete and abstract words in semantic dementia. , 2009, Neuropsychology.

[35]  W. K. Simmons,et al.  The anterior temporal lobes and the functional architecture of semantic memory , 2009, Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.

[36]  J. Ashburner,et al.  Atrophy progression in semantic dementia with asymmetric temporal involvement: A tensor-based morphometry study , 2009, Neurobiology of Aging.