Monday May 3, 2004
Noon E25-401

Ned Sahin
In-vivo electrophysiology and fMRI of human grammar: Electrical and
metabolic convergence in Broca's region.
Pinker Lab (Harvard University)

Pizza will be served!

All faculty, postdocs and students are invited to attend.

For questions about Brain Lunch, contact Monica Linden ( mlinden@... ).

See you on Monday,
Monica Linden
Brain Lunch Coordinator

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dear Colleagues,

It is my pleasure to announce that this week's Martinos Center BrainMap
Seminar (5/5) will be given by Dr. Timothy Q. Duong, Ph.D.  Dr. Duong is
an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts
Medical School.  His research interests are in developing MRI and MRS
methodologies to investigate: 1) the neurophysiological and biophysical
basis of fMRI signals, 2) sub-millimeter columnar structures and
organization, 3) blood flow, oxygenation, and function of the retina, and
4) functional recovery and reorganization after stroke.

DATE: 5/5/04 (this Weds)
TIME: Noon - 1:30 pm
PLACE: Room 2204 (2nd floor), Bldg 149, Martinos Center, Charlestown Navy
Yard.  Directions to the Martinos Center can be found at:
http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/NewFiles/directions.html

TITLE: "Diffusion, Perfusion, BOLD and CMRO2 fMRI of experimental stroke"

ABSTRACT: This talk will present recent development of MRI acquisition
techniques and data analysis techniques to characterize ischemic tissue
fates in terms of it anatomical (such as ADC and CBF) and functional
(such as BOLD, CBF and CMRO2) charateristics.

SELECTED PUBLICATIONS:
* Shen Q, Fisher M, Sotak CH, Duong TQ. Effects of reperfusion on ADC and
CBF pixel-by-pixel dynamics in stroke: characterizing tissue fates using
quantitative diffusion and perfusion imaging. J Cereb Blood Flow Metab
2004;24:280.
* Duong TQ, Yacoub E, Adriany G, Hu X, Andersen P, Vaughan JT, Ugurbil K,
Kim SG. Spatial specificity of high-resolution, spin-echo BOLD, and CBF
fMRI at 7T. Magn Reson Med 2004;51:646.
* Meng X, Fisher M, Shen Q, Sotak CH, Duong TQ. Characterizing the
diffusion/perfusion mismatch in experimental focal cerebral ischemia.
Ann Neurol 2004;55:207.
* Ferris CF, Snowdon CT, King JA, Sullivan JM Jr, Ziegler TE, Olson DP,
Schultz-Darken NJ, Tannenbaum PL, Ludwig R, Wu Z, Einspanier A, Vaughan
JT, Duong TQ. Activation of neural pathways associated with sexual
arousal in non-human primates. JMRI 2004;19:168.


Best,
Nina

--

--------------------------------------
Nina M. Menezes, Ph.D.
Department of Radiology
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Massachusetts General Hospital
Building 149, 13th Street (2301)
Charlestown, MA 02129
Fax:     617-726-7422
Email: nmenezes@...

TODAY - Monday May 3, 2004
Noon E25-401

Ned Sahin
In-vivo electrophysiology and fMRI of human grammar: Electrical and
metabolic convergence in Broca's region.
Pinker Lab (Harvard University)

Pizza will be served!

All faculty, postdocs and students are invited to attend.

Are you a grad student interested in running Brain Lunch next year?  Send
me an email!

For questions about Brain Lunch, contact Monica Linden ( mlinden@... ).



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department is proud to present:
Special Seminar with
Xiao-Jing Wang, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, Volen Center for Complex Systems and the Department of
Physics, Brandeis University
"Cortical Mechanisms of Working Memory and Decision-Making"
Date:  Monday, May 3, 2004 (TODAY)
Time:  4:00pm
Room E25-401
Hosted by Ann Graybiel


Paul Abrams
Administrative Assistant
Brain and Cognitive Sciences Headquarters
Phone: 617.253.5748
Fax:  617.258.9216

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Speech Communication Group Seminar Series
   (http://web.mit.edu/speech/www/seminars.html )

Hi Folks,
We have two seminars this week:

Wednesday, May 5, 3-4 in building 26, Room 314
Tom Quatieri
Robust Speech Processing using Non-acoustic Sensors
(see abstract below)

Friday, May 7, 3-4 in Grier Room B
Grzegorz Dogil
Speakers have access to a mental syllabary, but how do they use it?
Evidence from fMRI and speech production experiments.
(see abstract below)

Robust Speech Processing using Non-acoustic Sensors

T.F. Quatieri Information Systems Technology Group , Lincoln Laboratory,
MIT

Speech processing algorithms often degrade with high levels of noise
present in the acoustic environment. Recent advances in non-acoustic
sensors, such as the GEMS (glottal electromagnetic micro-power sensor)
and the P-mic (physiological mic), provide the exciting possibility of
both excitation and vocal tract measurements less influenced by acoustic
noise than an acoustic microphone.  We are currently investigating
methods of fusing these sensors for use in low-rate speech encoding and
speaker recognition applications. Our methods of fusion exploit the
ability of non-acoustic sensors to reveal certain speech attributes, for
example consonant voice bars and glottalized excitation, lost in the
noisy acoustic signal. Specifically, using signal-fusion techniques, we
have in Diagnostic Rhyme Testing (DRT) of intelligibility achieved large
performance gains across a variety of harsh acoustic environments over
the government standard MELPe 2400 bps speech coder. In addition, using
score-fusion approaches with state-of-the-art classification with
Gaussian Mixture Models and Support Vector Machines, we show the
potential of non-acoustic sensors to significantly increase speaker
authentication accuracy in harsh environments.



Speakers have access to a mental syllabary, but how do they use it?
Evidence from fMRI and speech production experiments.

  Grzegorz Dogil (speaker)1, Jörg Mayer2

  1Antje Schweitzer Institute of Natural Language Processing, University
of Stuttgart 2Linguistic Department, University of Potsdam, Germany

The psycholinguistic research into the process of speech production
carried out continuously in Europe for the last decades has led to an
establishment of an intricate computational model - s.c. Levelt Model
(Levelt 1989; Levelt et al 1999). One assumption of Levelt´s theory is
that speakers have access to a repository of syllabic gestures. This
repository, coined the ´mental syllabary´ contains the phonetic scores
for at least high-frequency syllables of the language. Psycholinguistic
experiments carried out by Levelt and his collegues (cf. Cholin,
Schiller, Levelt 2004, for a review and most recent findings) establish
firmly the role of a ´mental syllabary´ in the process of language
production. However, the phonetic consequences of the model and the
neurocognitive predictions that it makes have not been investigated. In
the present talk we will review the results of our phonetic and
neurophonetic experiments that were designed to test the role of the
presumed storage device (mental syllabary) in preparation and production
of speech. The experiment on duration variability in frequent and
infrequent syllables has shown significant differences in this phonetic
aspect of speech production (Schweitzer and Möbius 2003). Also a pilot
study of articulatory coherence (intrasyllabic coarticulation) in
syllabary and non-syllabary units shows some significant differences.
The fMRI examination of the syllabary (Mayer et al. 2003) also shows the
significant difference in the cognitive processing of the syllabary and
the non-syllabary units. However, the pre-frontal localization of the
syllabary predicted by the Levelt model (syllabary is supposed to be a
repository of over-learned motor actions) could not be found. Instead,
the major contrast (production of syllabary words minus production of
non-syllabary words) revealed enhanced neural activity in the temporal
region of the left hemisphere. We discuss the issue if perceptual
restrictions could be relevant for the phonetic and neurocognitive
models of speech production including a syllabary (cf. Guenther 2003).



Literature:



Cholin, J., Schiller, N.O., and W.I.M. Levelt (2004). The preparation of
syllables in speech production. Journal of Memory and Language 50, 47-61.



Guenther, F. (2003). Neural control of speech movements. In: Schiller,
N.O. and A.S. Meyer (eds.), Phonetics and Phonology in Language
Comprehension and Production. Berlin, de Gruzter, 209-241.



Levelt, W.I.M. (1989). Speaking: From Intention to Articulation.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.



Levelt, W.I.M., Roelofs, A., and A.S. Meyer (1999). A theory of lexical
access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22, 1-75.



Mayer, J. Ackermann, H., Dogil, G., Erb, M., Grodd, W. (2003). Syllable
retrieval vs. online assembly: fMRI examination of the syllabary. ICPhS
conference proceedings, Barcelona.



Schweitzer, A. and B. Möbius(2004): Exemplar-Based Production of
Prosody: Evidence from Segment and Syllable Durations. In: Proceedings
of Speech Prosody 2004 (Nara).



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The Hearing Research Seminars are held on Friday mornings at 10:30
and for the Spring of 2004 we will be meeting in 44 Cummington St. (ERB)
room 203.  Refreshments will be provided starting at 10:15.

*******************************************************************
Friday May 7, 2004 - 10:30 AM
44 Cummington Street (ERB) room 203

	 Tony Zador, MD, PhD
	 Associate Professor
	 Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

	 "The Cocktail Party Problem: Computation in the Auditory Cortex"

ABSTRACT

Animals in the world must separate sources into separate auditory
streams (the ``cocktail party problem''). This represents a hard
computational problem, still largely unsolved by artificial systems.
I will discuss theoretical and experimental approaches to
understanding how the cortex is able to solve this problem.

Refreshments will be provided starting at 10:15 AM.
*******************************************************************
Future Seminars:

Friday May 14, 2004 - 10:30 AM
44 Cummington Street (ERB) room 203

	 Ray Goldsworthy
	 MIT

	 "Predicting the intelligibility of cochlear implant processed
speech"

*******************************************************************

*******************************************************************
If you would like to give a seminar, or have any questions, please
contact Seth Newburg. <setho@...>

More information on the seminar series (including directions) can be
found at:    www.bu.edu/hrc/seminars.html
*******************************************************************

Friday's seminar will be from 10:00 to 11:00 am in Grier Room B.

Speech Communication Group Seminar Series
   (http://web.mit.edu/speech/www/seminars.html )

Speakers have access to a mental syllabary, but how do they use it?
Evidence from fMRI and speech production experiments.

Grzegorz Dogil (speaker)1, Jörg Mayer2

  1Antje Schweitzer Institute of Natural Language Processing, University
of Stuttgart 2Linguistic Department, University of Potsdam, Germany

The psycholinguistic research into the process of speech production
carried out continuously in Europe for the last decades has led to an
establishment of an intricate computational model - s.c. Levelt Model
(Levelt 1989; Levelt et al 1999). One assumption of Levelt´s theory is
that speakers have access to a repository of syllabic gestures. This
repository, coined the ´mental syllabary´ contains the phonetic scores
for at least high-frequency syllables of the language. Psycholinguistic
experiments carried out by Levelt and his collegues (cf. Cholin,
Schiller, Levelt 2004, for a review and most recent findings) establish
firmly the role of a ´mental syllabary´ in the process of language
production. However, the phonetic consequences of the model and the
neurocognitive predictions that it makes have not been investigated. In
the present talk we will review the results of our phonetic and
neurophonetic experiments that were designed to test the role of the
presumed storage device (mental syllabary) in preparation and production
of speech. The experiment on duration variability in frequent and
infrequent syllables has shown significant differences in this phonetic
aspect of speech production (Schweitzer and Möbius 2003). Also a pilot
study of articulatory coherence (intrasyllabic coarticulation) in
syllabary and non-syllabary units shows some significant differences.
The fMRI examination of the syllabary (Mayer et al. 2003) also shows the
significant difference in the cognitive processing of the syllabary and
the non-syllabary units. However, the pre-frontal localization of the
syllabary predicted by the Levelt model (syllabary is supposed to be a
repository of over-learned motor actions) could not be found. Instead,
the major contrast (production of syllabary words minus production of
non-syllabary words) revealed enhanced neural activity in the temporal
region of the left hemisphere. We discuss the issue if perceptual
restrictions could be relevant for the phonetic and neurocognitive
models of speech production including a syllabary (cf. Guenther 2003).



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This week's CBB lunch, the final for the season, will feature Ned T.
Sahin, Steve Pinker's graduate student.

Title: "Grammar and Broca's region: In-vivo electrophysiology and fMRI
studies"

Thursday 5/6/2004 at Noon, on wjh 7
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/psych/cbb/colloq/


  ______________________________________________________________
  steve franconeri 	 william james hall 744
  617.493.6268 		 33 kirkland st
  http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~francon cambridge ma 02138

_______________________________________________
Cbb_sem-list mailing list
Cbb_sem-list@...
http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/cbb_sem-list

The Program in Neuroscience and
The Department of Biology
Graduate Student Seminar Series

"Genetic Analysis of the Localization of Signaling Complexes in
Drosophilia Photoreceptor Cells"

Parthena Sanxaridis
Graduate Student, Department of Biology (from the Tsunoda lab)

Wednesday, May 5th, 2004
12 Noon, Room 113 of 5 Cummington Street

Visit http://www.bu.edu/neuro/ for news, events, and seminars in
Neuroscience at Boston University

<<Seminar announce.DD.doc>>
Behavioral Neuroscience Seminar Series


May 6, 2004


David Darby, Ph.D., FRACP

Associate Professor of Neuroscience
University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, Australia
Chief Medical Officer
		 CogState Ltd, Carlton, Victoria, Australia

Using Cognitive Decline as a Biomarker of Early Dementia

If you would like to subscribe to the Neuroscience Seminar e-mail distribution
list, contact

anelson@...

________________________________________________________________________________
_________________________________


Seminars are held weekly, on Thursdays, from 12-1,
One Brigham Circle in Conference Room 4-002B.

Lunch will be served.

This seminar is sponsored by Brigham and Women's Hospital, Division of Cognitive
and Behavioral Neurology. Assistance in the planning of this series has been
provided by faculty from Beth Israel Deaconess Hospital, Boston Veterans
Administration Medical Center, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Children's Hospital
Medical Center, Boston University, and Massachusetts Mental Health Center.
Brigham and Women's Hospital, Division of Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology is
approved by the American Psychological Association to offer continuing education
for psychologists. Brigham and Women's Hospital, Division of Cognitive and
Behavioral Neurology, maintains responsibility for the program. This program
offers 1 CE credit per seminar to psychologists. CME credit through Harvard
Medical School is also available.  This seminar series is designed for
individuals (physicians, psychologists, nurses, social workers and others) who
are interested in learning more about current issues and research in behavioral
neuroscience.  Educational objectives are available prior to the seminar by
calling the number below or emailing mmeadows@...
<mailto:mmeadows@...>.  The series is supported in part by generous
grants from Abbott Laboratories, Cephalon, Eisai, Glaxo Welcome, Janssen,
Novartis, Pfizer, Warner Lambert, and Zeneca.

For more information call David Wolk, M.D. or Mary-Ellen Meadows, Ph.D. at
617-732-8060.



[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The Picower Center  Seminar

Dr. Eric Knudsen
Stanford University
Department of Neurobiology

Mechanisms of Learning in the Auditory System of the Barn Owl

Thursday May 6, 2004
E25-401
4:00-5:00PM
(Refreshments to be served at 3:45pm)

Hosted by Elly Nedivi
web.mit.edu/picowercenter

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Dear Colleagues,

Just a quick reminder that today's Martinos Center BrainMap Seminar (5/5)
will be given by Dr. Timothy Q. Duong, Ph.D.  The title of Dr. Duong's
talk is "Diffusion, Perfusion, BOLD and CMRO2 fMRI of experimental
stroke".

DATE: 5/5/04 (Today)
TIME: Noon - 1:30 pm
PLACE: Room 2204 (2nd floor), Bldg 149, Martinos Center, Charlestown Navy
Yard.  Directions to the Martinos Center can be found at:
http://www.nmr.mgh.harvard.edu/NewFiles/directions.html

Best,
Nina

--

--------------------------------------
Nina M. Menezes, Ph.D.
Department of Radiology
Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging
Massachusetts General Hospital
Building 149, 13th Street (2301)
Charlestown, MA 02129
Fax:     617-726-7422
Email: nmenezes@...

Apologies if you receive more than one copy of this email.

***** FINAL CALL FOR REGISTRATION *****

EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON COGNITIVE AND NEURAL SYSTEMS

May 19-22, 2004
http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/conference.html
Boston University
CNS Department
677 Beacon Street
Boston, Massachusetts 02215

Sponsored by Boston University's
Center for Adaptive Systems
and
Department of Cognitive and Neural Systems
with financial support from the
Office of Naval Research

This single-track conference, which offers invited lectures and contributed
lectures and posters, focuses on two main themes:

How does the brain control behavior?
How can technology emulate biological intelligence?

CONFIRMED INVITED SPEAKERS:
Tutorial Lecture Series: Stephen Grossberg

Keynote Lectures: John Anderson and Miguel Nicolelis

Invited Speakers: Ehud Ahissar, Alan D. Baddeley, Moshe Bar, Gail A.
Carpenter, Stephen Goldinger, Daniel Kersten, Stephen M. Kosslyn, Tai-Sing
Lee, Eve Marder, Bartlett W. Mel, Jeffrey D. Schall,  Chantal Stern,
Mriganka Sur, Joseph Z. Tsien, William H. Warren Jr., Jeremy Wolfe.

Please visit the web site for conference details, including:
--the registration form
http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/registration.html
--a schedule of the oral and poster presentations
http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/schedule.html
--details about the tutorial lecture series
http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/grossberg-lectures.html
--local lodging options
http://cns.bu.edu/cns-meeting/hotels.html

The Memory Disorders Research Center will hold the ninth session of their
Colloquia series on Monday, May 10th. The series will begin at 12:00pm
in the 12th floor conference room of the Boston VA Main Building. The
conference room is on the 12th floor, wing D.

Dr. Sandra Neargarder will present her research entitled, "Contrast
Sensitivity and Alzheimer's Disease: Relation to Everyday Functioning."

Hello All,

I am looking for graduate students to meet with Dr. Erick Knudsen for
lunch at 12 Noon in room E18-309.   Dr. Knudsen is the PCLM's seminar
speaker for tomorrow at 4PM.    Dr. Knudsen is from the Department of
Neurobiology, Stanford University, his talk title will be "Mechanisms
of Learning in the Auditory System of the Barn Owl"  Hosted by Elly
Nedivi.

Please let me know if you wish to join Dr. Knudsen for lunch.  I need
to know by the end of the day via email and by 9 AM tomorrow morning
by calling and leaving a message at (617) 452-2070.

Thanks,
Charles

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Professor Sebastian Seung invites you to a seminar by Dr. Read Montague

When?   Wednesday, May 19th, at 12:00 noon
Where?  E25-401

Title:

The emerging model of dopamine function in reward learning and action choice

Dr. Read Montague is a Professor in the Division of Neuroscience at Baylor
College of Medicine, Director of the Human Neuroimaging Lab, and Director
of the Center for Theoretical Neuroscience.


------------------------------------------------------------------------


Note:  Professor Montague also will speak at MIT Sloan, on Thursday, May
20th, at 4:00 p.m., presenting a talk entitled "Neural correlates of
behavioral choice for Coke and Pepsi."

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Don't miss today's CBB Lunch Grand Finale, with
Ned T.  Sahin, from the Pinker lab.

"Grammar and Broca's region:
  In-vivo electrophysiology and fMRI studies"


Noon, on wjh 7
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/psych/cbb/colloq/


*** And keep your ears peeled for a news on a CBB Barbeque! (19th-ish?)

-Steve
______________________________________________________________
steve franconeri 	 william james hall 744
617.493.6268 		 33 kirkland st
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~francon cambridge ma 02138


_______________________________________________
Cbb_sem-list mailing list
Cbb_sem-list@...
http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/cbb_sem-list

Monday May 10, 2004
Noon E25-401

Mark Histed
Microstimulation of SEF can change spatial memory
Miller Lab

In order to study how sequential memories are processed, we trained
monkeys to remember, over a short delay, the location of two spatial
cues and the order in which they occurred.  We microstimulated sites
in the supplementary eye fields (SEF), an area on the dorsomedial
surface of the frontal lobe thought to be involved in eye movement
planning and execution.  We show that microstimulation during the
delay can affect the order in which the memories are recalled.
Previous experiments (Newsome, deAngelis, and collaborators) have
demonstrated that microstimulation can bias visual perception.  These
experiments show that stimulation can also change short-term memories.

Pizza will be served!

All faculty, postdocs and students are invited to attend.

Are you a grad student interested in running Brain Lunch next year?  Send
me an email!

For questions about Brain Lunch, contact Monica Linden ( mlinden@... ).

See you on Monday,
Monica Linden
Brain Lunch Coordinator

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

The Picower Center  Seminar  - TODAY

Dr. Eric Knudsen
Stanford University
Department of Neurobiology

Mechanisms of Learning in the Auditory System of the Barn Owl

Thursday May 6, 2004
E25-401
4:00-5:00PM
(Refreshments to be served at 3:45pm)

Hosted by Elly Nedivi
web.mit.edu/picowercenter

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Don't miss today's CBB Lunch Grand Finale, with
Ned T.  Sahin, from the Pinker lab.

"Grammar and Broca's region:
  In-vivo electrophysiology and fMRI studies"


NOW, on wjh7
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/psych/cbb/colloq/


-Steve
______________________________________________________________
steve franconeri 	 william james hall 744
617.493.6268 		 33 kirkland st
http://www.wjh.harvard.edu/~francon cambridge ma 02138


_______________________________________________
Cbb_sem-list mailing list
Cbb_sem-list@...
http://lists.hcs.harvard.edu/mailman/listinfo/cbb_sem-list

BCS COLLOQUIUM, Tomorrow, 4:00 PM, E25-117 (followed by reception)
Aniruddh D. Patel, Ph.D., Associate Fellow, The Neurosciences
Institute, La Jolla, California
Music Cognition in Relation to Language Processing and Brain Dynamics
Hosted by Ted Gibson

If you would like schedule a meeting with Dr. Patel, please respond
to this email, or call Meg Murphy at (617) 253-5763
--
*******************
Meg Murphy
MIT
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences
77 Massachusetts Ave.
NE20-411
Cambridge, MA 02139
phone (617) 253-5763
fax   (617) 258-8654


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

McGovern Institute for Brain Research


Special Seminar

Dr. Botond Roska
Harvard Society of Fellows
Department of Genetics, Harvard Medical School
Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology,
   Harvard University


"Structure and function of neural circuits:
a combined molecular, viral and electrophysiological approach"

Thursday, May 13, 2004
4:00 PM
Building E25-401




--
Emily Wilkoff
Administrative Assistant
McGovern Institute
E19-307
4-6120 (phone)
2-4119 (fax)

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

To be held in Grier Room B from 10:00 - 11:00 am

Speech Communication Group Seminar Series
   (http://web.mit.edu/speech/www/seminars.html )

Speakers have access to a mental syllabary, but how do they use it?
Evidence from fMRI and speech production experiments.

Grzegorz Dogil (speaker)1, Jörg Mayer2, Antje Schweitzer Institute of
Natural Language Processing, University of Stuttgart 2Linguistic
Department, University of Potsdam, Germany

The psycholinguistic research into the process of speech production
carried out continuously in Europe for the last decades has led to an
establishment of an intricate computational model - s.c. Levelt Model
(Levelt 1989; Levelt et al 1999). One assumption of Levelt´s theory is
that speakers have access to a repository of syllabic gestures. This
repository, coined the ´mental syllabary´ contains the phonetic scores
for at least high-frequency syllables of the language. Psycholinguistic
experiments carried out by Levelt and his collegues (cf. Cholin,
Schiller, Levelt 2004, for a review and most recent findings) establish
firmly the role of a ´mental syllabary´ in the process of language
production. However, the phonetic consequences of the model and the
neurocognitive predictions that it makes have not been investigated. In
the present talk we will review the results of our phonetic and
neurophonetic experiments that were designed to test the role of the
presumed storage device (mental syllabary) in preparation and production
of speech. The experiment on duration variability in frequent and
infrequent syllables has shown significant differences in this phonetic
aspect of speech production (Schweitzer and Möbius 2003). Also a pilot
study of articulatory coherence (intrasyllabic coarticulation) in
syllabary and non-syllabary units shows some significant differences.
The fMRI examination of the syllabary (Mayer et al. 2003) also shows the
significant difference in the cognitive processing of the syllabary and
the non-syllabary units. However, the pre-frontal localization of the
syllabary predicted by the Levelt model (syllabary is supposed to be a
repository of over-learned motor actions) could not be found. Instead,
the major contrast (production of syllabary words minus production of
non-syllabary words) revealed enhanced neural activity in the temporal
region of the left hemisphere. We discuss the issue if perceptual
restrictions could be relevant for the phonetic and neurocognitive
models of speech production including a syllabary (cf. Guenther 2003).



Literature:



Cholin, J., Schiller, N.O., and W.I.M. Levelt (2004). The preparation of
syllables in speech production. Journal of Memory and Language 50, 47-61.



Guenther, F. (2003). Neural control of speech movements. In: Schiller,
N.O. and A.S. Meyer (eds.), Phonetics and Phonology in Language
Comprehension and Production. Berlin, de Gruzter, 209-241.



Levelt, W.I.M. (1989). Speaking: From Intention to Articulation.
Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.



Levelt, W.I.M., Roelofs, A., and A.S. Meyer (1999). A theory of lexical
access in speech production. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 22, 1-75.



Mayer, J. Ackermann, H., Dogil, G., Erb, M., Grodd, W. (2003). Syllable
retrieval vs. online assembly: fMRI examination of the syllabary. ICPhS
conference proceedings, Barcelona.



Schweitzer, A. and B. Möbius(2004): Exemplar-Based Production of
Prosody: Evidence from Segment and Syllable Durations. In: Proceedings
of Speech Prosody 2004 (Nara).




[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Speech Communication Group Seminar Series
   (http://web.mit.edu/speech/www/seminars.html )

To be held in Grier Room B from 3-4 pm

Exploring production-perception relationships during speech development

Lucie Ménard
Université du Québec à Montréal

  The development of speech from infancy to adulthood results from the
interaction of neurocognitive factors, by which phonological
representations and motor control abilities are gradually acquired; and
physical factors, involving the complex changes in the morphology of the
articulatory system. In this talk, two studies will be presented. In the
first study, a perceptual experiment was conducted with 40 adult French
listeners in order to describe sensori-motor maps for newborn-like,
child-like, and adult-like vocal tracts. The Variable Linear
Articulatory Model (S. Maeda), integrating non-uniform vocal tract
growth, was used to simulate the effect of morphology in the acoustic
and perceptual domains. In the second study, the relationships between
production and perception during speech development were examined
through a study of compensation strategies to a lip-tube perturbation.
Acoustic and perceptual analyses of the rounded vowel [u] produced by 12
4-year-old French speakers were conducted under two conditions: in
normal condition and with a 15 mm-diameter tube inserted between the
lips. Recordings of isolated vowels were made in normal condition before
any perturbation (N1), immediately upon insertion of the tube (P1), for
each of the next 20 trials in this perturbed condition (P2), and in
normal condition after the perturbed trials (N2). Results of the
acoustic analyses reveal significant alterations of F1, F2, and/or F0
values in the P1, P2, and N2 conditions, compared to N1, with a possible
improvement of compensation over time. Perceptual data confirm these
patterns and suggest that the task is defined in the acoustic space by a
linear combination of F0, F1, and F2 (in bark).




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The Brain and Cognitive Sciences Department is proud to present:
Aniruddh D. Patel, Ph.D.
Associate Fellow, The Neurosciences Institute
"Music Cognition in Relation to Language Processing and Brain Dynamics"
Date:  Friday, May 7, 2004 (Today)
Time:  4:00pm
Room E25-117
Reception afterwards in NE20-4th Floor Lounge


Paul Abrams
Administrative Assistant
Brain and Cognitive Sciences Headquarters
Phone: 617.253.5748
Fax:  617.258.9216

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******* Language, Cognition, and Computation Lecture Series *******

Title                  Interpreting Vague Utterances in Context
Speaker             Matthew Stone
Affiliation          Computer Science and Cognitive Science, Rutgers
Date                  Friday, May 7, 2004
Time                 2:00pm
Location            E15-070 (Bartos Theater)


Abstract

We use the interpretation of vague scalar predicates like "small" as
an illustration of the ability of systematic semantic models of
dialogue context to derive useful, fine-grained utterance
interpretations from radically underspecified semantic forms. Our
account involves two principles. We model pragmatic reasoning as a
general process that infers consistent collaborative intentions to
explain agents' contributions to joint activity. We interpret vague
predicates by recovering salient scales and relevant distinctions
along them from the dialogue context. Given this framework, we can
infer implicit standards of comparison for vague scalar predicates
through completely general pragmatics, yet closely constrain the
intended meaning to within a natural range. Our account connects
closely with dynamic models from formal semantics, but we have
implemented it exactly in a natural language interface for describing
spatial actions.

(The talk presents joint work with David DeVault, Rutgers.)


Bio

Matthew Stone is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer
Science and Center for Cognitive Science at Rutgers, the State
University of New Jersey. He got his PhD in Computer and Information
Science at University of Pennsylvania, working under Mark Steedman in
the Computational Linguistics Lab and the Institute for Research in
Cognitive Science. His research centers around computational
cognitive models of natural language meaning and aims to characterize
how meaning in conversation originates in and depends on
interlocutors' collaborative real-world action. His work therefore
bridges computational logic, theories of agency and intention from
artificial intelligence and philosophy, computational models of
embodied action, and approaches to discourse context and semantic
representation from formal and computational linguistics. Recently,
he has served on the Program Committee for IJCAI 2003, as the Tutorial
Forum Chair of AAAI 2004, and program co-chair for TAG+ 2004, the
Seventh International Workshop on Tree Adjoining Grammar and Related
Formalisms.


*******************************************************************

Deb Roy
Assistant Professor, MIT Media Laboratory
dkroy@...   www.media.mit.edu/~dkroy

MONDAY, MAY 10
BRAIN LUNCH, NOON, E25-401
Mark Histed, BCS Graduate Student, Miller Lab
Microstimulation of SEF can change spatial memory


TUESDAY, MAY 11
COG LUNCH, NOON, NE20-461
Charles Kemp, BCS Graduate Student, Tenenbaum Lab
Structure in the World and Mind

WEDNESDAY, MAY 12
No events are scheduled for today.


   THURSDAY, MAY 13
MCGOVERN INSTITUTE SPECIAL SEMINAR, 4:00 PM, E25-401
Botond Roska MD, Ph.D: Harvard Society of Fellows, Department of Genetics,
Harvard Medical School, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology,
Harvard University
Structure and function of neural circuits: a combined molecular, viral and
electrophysiological approach

MIT BrainTrust and the Brain & Cognitive Science Society is holding a
departmental mixer
   5:30 PM, Skyroom at 100 Memorial Drive


   FRIDAY, MAY 14
BCS COLLOQUIUM, 4:00 PM, E25-117 (followed by reception)
Dan Feldman, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Biology, University of
California at San Diego
Synaptic Mechanisms for Whisker Map Plasticity in Somatosensory Cortex
Host:  Yasunori Hayashi
Note: This is the last colloquium for the Spring 2004 Semester.  Have a
great summer



***********************************************
Provided as a service by the
Department of Brain & Cognitive Sciences at MIT
Please send comments to jrauch@...
***********************************************
























































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We also need a coordinator for Brain Lunch.  So you can just read Jodi's
email and replace Cog with Brain :-)

Please let me know if you're interested!

-Monica


>X-Sieve: CMU Sieve 2.2
>Date: Fri, 7 May 2004 14:53:20 -0400 (EDT)
>From: Jodi Davenport <jodi@...>
>To: bcs-grads@...
>Subject: needed - new cog czar!
>X-Spam-Score: -10.2
>X-Spam-Flag: NO
>X-Scanned-By: MIMEDefang 2.28 (www . roaringpenguin . com / mimedefang)
>
>Yes, the time has come for me to step down from my post as Cog Czar. In
>order for this fine tradition to continue, we need a new leader to take
>this position. Please email me if you are interested in leading Cog Lunch
>for the 2004-5 school year.
>
>Benefits include (but are not limited to):
>
>- Experience with organizing a lecture series (and a line on your CV).
>
>- Notoriety as "that Cog Lunch person" throughout the Boston/Cambridge
>scientific community.
>
>- Getting to know faculty and graduate students in the department.
>
>(fyi - pizza orders are now placed one time per semester, and there is no
>longer a need for reimbursements. polcaris hasn't been late once!)

TODAY  - Monday May 10, 2004
Noon E25-401

Mark Histed
Microstimulation of SEF can change spatial memory
Miller Lab

In order to study how sequential memories are processed, we trained
monkeys to remember, over a short delay, the location of two spatial
cues and the order in which they occurred.  We microstimulated sites
in the supplementary eye fields (SEF), an area on the dorsomedial
surface of the frontal lobe thought to be involved in eye movement
planning and execution.  We show that microstimulation during the
delay can affect the order in which the memories are recalled.
Previous experiments (Newsome, deAngelis, and collaborators) have
demonstrated that microstimulation can bias visual perception.  These
experiments show that stimulation can also change short-term memories.

Pizza will be served!

All faculty, postdocs and students are invited to attend.

Are you a grad student interested in running Brain Lunch next year?  Send
me an email!

For questions about Brain Lunch, contact Monica Linden ( mlinden@... ).

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Tomorrow at noon, join us and hear Charles Kemp talk about, Structure in
the World and Mind.

Tuesday, May 11th
Ne20-461, 12pm
lunch will be provided

Abstract
Computational theories of cognition attempt to explain human behavior as
an adaptation to the structure of the world. Theories of categorization
begin with the assumption that the world is "clumpy" -- that properties
tend to cluster together. I'll argue that a generic notion of clumpiness
is not enough, and that we need to characterize precisely how the
clumpiness works in different domains. This raises a challenging problem:
how do people figure out the structure of different domains? I'll try to
suggest how this might be done.

Upcoming talk...

May
18 Jodi Davenport, MIT


questions? comments?
email Jodi Davenport, "Cog Czar"
jodi@...
617.253.5756