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Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space
Are the grid cells discovered in rodents relevant to human cognition? Following up on two seminal studies by others, we aimed to check whether an approximate 6-fold, grid-like symmetry shows up in the cortical activity of humans who “navigate” between vowels, given that vowel space can be approximat...
Autores principales: | , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
AIMS Press
2020
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7519971/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32995486 http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/Neuroscience.2020015 |
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author | Kaya, Zeynep Soltanipour, Mohammadreza Treves, Alessandro |
author_facet | Kaya, Zeynep Soltanipour, Mohammadreza Treves, Alessandro |
author_sort | Kaya, Zeynep |
collection | PubMed |
description | Are the grid cells discovered in rodents relevant to human cognition? Following up on two seminal studies by others, we aimed to check whether an approximate 6-fold, grid-like symmetry shows up in the cortical activity of humans who “navigate” between vowels, given that vowel space can be approximated with a continuous trapezoidal 2D manifold, spanned by the first and second formant frequencies. We created 30 vowel trajectories in the assumedly flat central portion of the trapezoid. Each of these trajectories had a duration of 240 milliseconds, with a steady start and end point on the perimeter of a “wheel”. We hypothesized that if the neural representation of this “box” is similar to that of rodent grid units, there should be an at least partial hexagonal (6-fold) symmetry in the EEG response of participants who navigate it. We have not found any dominant n-fold symmetry, however, but instead, using PCAs, we find indications that the vowel representation may reflect phonetic features, as positioned on the vowel manifold. The suggestion, therefore, is that vowels are encoded in relation to their salient sensory-perceptual variables, and are not assigned to arbitrary grid-like abstract maps. Finally, we explored the relationship between the first PCA eigenvector and putative vowel attractors for native Italian speakers, who served as the subjects in our study. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7519971 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2020 |
publisher | AIMS Press |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-75199712020-09-28 Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space Kaya, Zeynep Soltanipour, Mohammadreza Treves, Alessandro AIMS Neurosci Research Article Are the grid cells discovered in rodents relevant to human cognition? Following up on two seminal studies by others, we aimed to check whether an approximate 6-fold, grid-like symmetry shows up in the cortical activity of humans who “navigate” between vowels, given that vowel space can be approximated with a continuous trapezoidal 2D manifold, spanned by the first and second formant frequencies. We created 30 vowel trajectories in the assumedly flat central portion of the trapezoid. Each of these trajectories had a duration of 240 milliseconds, with a steady start and end point on the perimeter of a “wheel”. We hypothesized that if the neural representation of this “box” is similar to that of rodent grid units, there should be an at least partial hexagonal (6-fold) symmetry in the EEG response of participants who navigate it. We have not found any dominant n-fold symmetry, however, but instead, using PCAs, we find indications that the vowel representation may reflect phonetic features, as positioned on the vowel manifold. The suggestion, therefore, is that vowels are encoded in relation to their salient sensory-perceptual variables, and are not assigned to arbitrary grid-like abstract maps. Finally, we explored the relationship between the first PCA eigenvector and putative vowel attractors for native Italian speakers, who served as the subjects in our study. AIMS Press 2020-08-04 /pmc/articles/PMC7519971/ /pubmed/32995486 http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/Neuroscience.2020015 Text en © 2020 the Author(s), licensee AIMS Press This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) |
spellingShingle | Research Article Kaya, Zeynep Soltanipour, Mohammadreza Treves, Alessandro Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space |
title | Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space |
title_full | Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space |
title_fullStr | Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space |
title_full_unstemmed | Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space |
title_short | Non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space |
title_sort | non-hexagonal neural dynamics in vowel space |
topic | Research Article |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7519971/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32995486 http://dx.doi.org/10.3934/Neuroscience.2020015 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT kayazeynep nonhexagonalneuraldynamicsinvowelspace AT soltanipourmohammadreza nonhexagonalneuraldynamicsinvowelspace AT trevesalessandro nonhexagonalneuraldynamicsinvowelspace |