Neural Value Systems And Language

Edelman (1992: 100):

Yet while perceptual categorisation and memory are necessary for learning, they are not sufficient. What is needed in addition is a connection to value systems mediated by parts of the brain that are different from those that carry out categorisation. The sufficient condition for adaptation is provided by the linkage of global mappings to the activity of the so-called hedonic centres and the limbic system of the brain in a way that satisfies homeostatic, appetitive, and consummatory needs reflecting evolutionarily established values. These value laden brain structures, such as the hypothalamus, various nuclei in the midbrain, and so on, evolved in response to ethological demands, and some of their circuits are species-specific. It is obvious why this is so: Mating activity and behaviour in birds varies widely from that in whales.

Blogger Comments:

The notion that all categorisation is guided (differentially weighted) by systems that have been evolutionarily selected for adaptive value is consistent with the SFL perspective that language itself is an expansion and projection of a system that confers biological advantage on organisms with such potential.

Perceptual Categorisation, Memory, And Learning Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 100):

The fundamental triad of higher brain functions is composed of perceptual categorisation, memory, and learning. (While these functions are often treated separately for the convenience of discussion, it should be kept in mind that, in fact, they are inseparable aspects of a common mental performance.) … Perceptual categorisation is generally necessary for memory, which is, after all, about previous categorisations. … We will see in this chapter that any kind of memory, while based on changes in synaptic strength, is a dynamic system property, one whose characteristics depend on the actual neural structures in which it occurs. To serve the adaptive needs of an animal faced with the unforeseen juxtapositions of events affecting survival, however, learning that affects behaviour is also necessary. Thus, the three fundamental functions — categorisation, memory and learning — are closely connected: The last depends on the first two.

Blogger Comments:

In Edelman's Theory of Neuronal Group Selection, perceptual categorisation is effected when events on sensory sheets select specific combinations of neuronal groups out all that happen to be firing at the time.  The selection involves the strengthening of the synapses between the neurones which increases the probability of these neuronal groups — rather than others — firing again in response to the same or similar sensory stimuli.  It is in this sense that neuronal groups are 'selected'.  This process is guided by value systems of the brain, whose values are biologically selected in the history of the species.

On Edelman's model, memory is the ability to repeat a performance.  A perceptual memory is the ability to repeat the performance of the neuronal groups selected in the process of perceptual categorisation.  Learning is the value-guided change in the system of categorisations during the ongoing experience of an organism. 

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, Edelman's model of perceptual categorisation construes the material and relational process that underlie the construal of sensorimotor experience as perceptual meaning.  (However, what an organism 'sees' is the correlation of these perceptual meanings with the meanings of other semiotic systems, such as language in humans or protolanguage in other social species.)

By the same token, perceptual memory is the potential to instantiate the meanings of the perceptual categorisation system, and the act of remembering is the instantiation of such potential.  Learning, then, is the ontogenesis of system potential in the lifetime of an individual.

'An Unlabelled World Constrained By The Laws Of Physics' Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 99):

Two apparently unrelated observations have compelled us to take a new look at how the brain might function as a recognition system. The first is the enormous diversity and individuality of brain structure. The second is that the world, although constrained by the laws of physics, is an unlabelled place.

Blogger Comments:

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistic theory, the 'world' of experience is 'unlabelled' until it is construed as meaning.  Within meaning, there is the distinction between first-order meaning (e.g. the data for the laws of physics) and second-order meaning (e.g. the laws of physics), the latter being a reconstrual (a model) of the former.

It is not that model constrains the data, but that the data constrain the model.  And the laws of physics are not laws in the sense of modulation (obligation), but laws in the sense of modalisation (probability).

A 'Scientific' Theory Of Consciousness Through Systemic Functional Linguistics

Edelman (1992: 82):

To be scientific, the theory must be based on the assumption that all cognition and all conscious experience rest solely on processes and orderings occurring in the physical world.

Blogger Comments:

To be clear, this criterion for 'scientific' derives from Galileo's primary qualities and Descartes' res extensa, as previously discussed on this blog.  Note that, on this model, Chomsky's Formal linguistics is not scientific, since it is concerned instead with Descartes' res cogitans.

From the perspective of Systemic Functional Linguistics, this approach to 'cognition and all conscious experience' reconstrues the 'inner domain' of mental (and verbal) processes in terms of the 'outer domain' of material and relational processes.  That is, it provides the material basis for consciousness, but stops short of modelling consciousness itself.