Basic Bits of Neuronal Grammar Friedemann Pulvermüller MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit Cambridge

Activity states: Ignition -- full activation, momentary Reverberation -- continuous enhanced activity following ignition Priming -- “parasitic” activity caused by strongly connected sets Rest -- inactivity

Activity states: Darker colours denote reduced activity states

The network:

The represented elements: WORDS SEQUENCE FEATURES

The representing elements: WORD WEBS

The representing elements: WORD WEBS SEQUENCE DETECTORS (SDs)

I 3 word input congruent with the network structure

The sentence “Betty get up” will appear in the input and will not be accepted by the network

Time step / Input / Process

0--All webs at rest

1BettyIgnition of word web

2--Priming of SD

3--Priming of SD

4--Priming of word web

5getsPrimed ignition of word web

6--Priming of SDs Backward ignition

7--Priming of SDs Backward ignition

8--Priming of word web Backward ignition

9----

10upIgnition of word web

11--Backward ignition

12--Backward ignition

13--Backward ignition

14--Backward ignition

15--Backward ignition

16--Backward ignition

17--Backward ignition

18--Deactivation

At time step 17, the 3 criteria for string acceptance were met: All activated word webs were visible (i.e., reverberated at the highest reverberation level). All activate word webs were satisfied (i.e., their set of sequence detectors reverberated at a high level). All active sets were synchronized (I.e., participated in a continuous wave of ignitions).

II 3 word input incongruent with the network structure

The sentence “Up get Betty” will appear in the input and will not be accepted by the network

Time step / Input / Process

0--All webs at rest

1upIgnition of word web

2----

3----

4getUnprimed ignition I^ of word web

5-- Priming of SD Threshold regulation

6--Priming of SD

7--Priming of SD

8BettyUnprimed ignition I^ of word web

9--Priming of SD Threshold regulation

10--Priming of SD

11--Priming of SD

At time step 10, the 3 criteria for string acceptance were not met: Only 1 word web was visible (the 2 others were at lower activity levels, R2 and R3; cf. darker colours). No one of the 3 word webs was satisfied (SDs did not reverberate). No final synchronization process.

III 3 word input partly incongruent with the network structure

The sentence “Up Betty get” will appear in the input and will not be accepted by the network

Time step / Input / Process

0--All webs at rest

1upIgnition of word web

2----

3----

4BettyUnprimed ignition I^ of word web

5--Priming of SD Threshold regulation

6BettyPriming of SD

7--Priming of word web

8getPrimed ignition of word web

9--Priming of SD Backward ignition

10--Priming of SD Backward ignition

11--Backward ignition

12----

At time step 12, not all of the 3 string acceptance criteria were met: 2 out of the 3 activated word webs were visible (i.e., reverberated at the highest reverberation level). Only 1 out of 3 word webs were satisfied (i.e., their set of sequence detectors reverberated at a high level). Only 2 out of the 3 word webs were synchronized (I.e., participated in a continuous wave of ignitions).