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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...

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Autores principales: Kaya, Zeynep, Soltanipour, Mohammadreza, Treves, Alessandro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: AIMS Press 2020
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.
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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
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