mind and language: ontology and neuroscience

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Mental Functioning and the Ontology of Language

Barry SmithOctober 1, 2012

with thanks to Janna Hastings

Mental Functioning is Neural Functioning: Towards a Unified Ontology of

Mind, Brain, and Behavior

Gwen A. Frishkoff

Department of Psychology NeuroInformatics CenterGeorgia State University University of Oregon

Outline of Talk• What is a mental process?

– A view from cognitive psychology– The Mind–Brain problem and three proposed

solutions (ontology views)

• A neurophsysiological framework for understanding mental processes– Levels of brain, levels of mind– What are mental representations “about”?

(Proposed solution to problems of subjectivity, aboutness)

What is a Mental Process? A view from cognitive psychology

Short-term memory Cognitive control

Motor control,Action

Sensation, Perception

Long-term MemoryHabits & Skills

How do we know any of this?

That is, where did the components of the standard model come from?

mental

processes

• Mental processes cannot be observed.* • They must be inferred based on what we can observe.

What can we observe?...

*We can revise this assumption later (if Mind = Brain)

The mind as a black box

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• Physical processes in body Behavior (response type, accuracy, reaction time)

• Physiological processes in brain Neural activity and correlates of neural activity (blood flow to brain regions)

What we can observe… and How

A schematic of Helmholtz’s apparatus for measuring the time course of muscle contraction and the propagation velocity of the nerve impulse. Source: Bennett, 1999.

A 256-channel electrode “net” that is used to measure brain electrical activity (EEG)

CogPO!

“A mental process is a neural process.”

• Avoids Mind-Body dualism

• More precise than other two solutions

• Gives ready framework for comparative neurophysiology & comparative cognition

• Knowledge of brain structure & function informs understanding of mental function (and dysfunction)

ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR

Mental Functioning Ontology (MF)

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braininendocrine

gland

Mental Functioning Ontology (MF)

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brain endocrine gland

ENVI

RON

MEN

T

Aboutness

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brain endocrine gland

ENVI

RON

MEN

T

Levels of brain, levels of mind

Mesulam, 1990

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Representation, monitoring and control of internal environment

(“self”)

Representation, monitoring and control of bodily interface to

external environment(“real world”)

Levels of brain, levels of mind

Mesulam, 1990

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Representation, monitoring and control of internal environment

(“self”)

Representation, monitoring and control of bodily interface to

external environment(“real world”)

Note use of “sneer” quotes – “real world”,

“self”

Mental representations: What are they “about”?

Peripheral (sensory-motor) parts of the body are “mapped” to (represented by) an orderly set of discrete regions within sensory and motor cortex.

Sensoy-motor maps in the brain

The Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) Axis monitors and controls internal bodily functions, such as blood circulation, breathing, digestion, stress, and arousal.

Maps of the internal milieux

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Shimon Edelman’s Riddle of Representation

two humans, a monkey, and a robot

are looking at a piece of cheese;

what is common to the representational processes in their visual systems?

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Answer:

The cheese, of course

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The real cheese

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Perception of internal (bodily)

environment(“self”)

Perception of external

environment/sensory input(“real world”)

Mental processes, states, and representations

or objects or processes inside the body

or objects or processes inside the body

objects and processes inside and outside the body play a role here too

external targets

internal and external features causally relevant to perception, nociception, etc.

all o

f the

se to

geth

er

form

the

envi

ronm

ent

external targets

internal and external features causally relevant to perception, nociception, etc.

the arrow of aboutness

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Brentano-Husserl approach to intentionality

intentionality can be mediated by language

“food”

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Brentano, Husserl, Chisholm Searle: the primacy of the intentional

linguistic expressions have meanings, because there are mental experiences which have aboutness

Roderick M. Chisholm, “The Primacy of the Intentional”, Synthese, 61, 1984, 89-109

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the primacy of language (Sellars …): mental experiences are about objects because words have meaning

meaning

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to understand the aboutness of the mental, study the semantics of language (model theory)

meaning

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language comes later than mental aboutness

What is a Mental Process? A view from cognitive psychology

Short-term memory Cognitive control

Motor control,Action

Sensation, Perception

Long-term MemoryHabits & Skills

All of this is present before there is language

Thesis: aboutness is a primitive relation between a mental process and a target

external to that mental process

Problems for this thesis: 1. mismatch2. non-existence

1. mismatch of content to target

“poison”

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• the apple is poisonous• the apple is not poisonous

two phenomenologically identical mental experiences

1. mismatch of content to target

“poison”

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• the apple is poisonous• the apple is not poisonous

two neurologically identical mental experiences

2. there is no target

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“unicorn”

Information artifacts, too, involve aboutness, and the same 3 kinds of

mismatchBFO:Continuant

BFO:Independent Continuant

BFO:Dependent Continuant

BFO:Generically Dependent Continuant

Information Content Entity

can be copied

concretized ina bearer

is about something(anything)

$64,000 problem of providing a coherent account of intentionality

Neurology-based solution: we are never directed towards real objects in any case, but only to “real objects” Let us find an easier, neutral, route to building an ontology which does not rest on finding a solution to this problem

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Ontological traffic rule:

to build an ontology of the types of entities in a complex domain, focus on the canonical instances

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Canonical fear

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canonical fear

fear

EMOTION COMPONENT CHARACTERISTIC FOR FEARAction tendency Fight-or-flightSubjective emotional feeling Negative, tense, powerlessBehavioural response Characteristic fearful facial

expressionCharacteristic appraisal Something (some real thing) in

my environment is dangerous to me

subtype

Canonical and non-canonical fearCanonical fear gives rise to action tendencies that are conformant to a perceived danger

Phobias = dispositions giving rise to non-canonical fear, e.g. laridaphobia

Another case involving non-canonical fear: people taking pleasure in watching horror films

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Canonical pain & variantsPCT: pain with concordant tissue damage: the patient experiences pain of the evolutionarily most basic sort = pain in response to concordant tissue damage

Variant painPNT: pain with peripheral trauma but discordant (elevated) relative to tissue damage: there is peripheral trauma, but the patient is experiencing pain of an intensity that is discordant therewith;NN: neuropathic nociception: no peripheral trauma, but the patient is experiencing pain in result of a neuropathic disorder in the nociceptive system.

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Pain-related phenomena without pain

PBWP: pain behavior without pain: there is a cry or report of pain, but no pain is being experienced (a fact which may or may not be detectable by an external observer)TWP: Tissue-damage without pain: tissue damage normally of the sort to cause pain does not activate the pain system.

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Pain Ontology (PN) branch of MF-EM

Lying about pain

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Canonical pain

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canonical pain

pain

EMOTION COMPONENT CHARACTERISTIC FOR PAINAction tendency Withdrawal

Subjective emotional feeling Negative, tense, powerless

Behavioural response Characteristic painful facial expression

Characteristic appraisal Something is dangerous to me

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How shall we structure the MF ontology?

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simple object-presenting acts vs. judgments, evaluations, …

mental process content (putative) target

presenting actcontent of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

judging act

judgment-content

“the apple over there is ripe”

state of affairsobjective, fact

evaluating actemotional act

appraisal…

“it is good that the apple over there is ripe”

?

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

targetpresent

targetabsent

• target present = you are in physical contact with target• successful intentionality

Successful intentionality

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”

object of presentation

targetpresent

targetAbsent

+ evidence

+ evidence

–evidence

• target present = with direct evidence• target absent = with indirect evidence, with no evidence

at all

Successful intentionality

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relational acts

• include also cases of unconscious awareness, e.g. of the chair that you are sitting on

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

object exists

object does not exist

targetpresent

targetabsent

Veridical intentionality

ordinary perception

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

object exists

object does not exist

targetpresent

targetabsent

Veridical intentionality

veridical thinking about

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”

object of presentation

targetpresent

targetabsent

object exists

object does not exist

Non-veridical intentionality

non-veridical thinking about (error, hallucination, imagination, …)

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

object exists

object does not exist

targetpresent

targetabsent

Non-veridical intentionality

error, hallucination = the presenting process is dependent on an underlying false belief

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

object exists

object does not exist

targetpresent

targetabsent

Non-veridical intentionality

thinking about Macbeth = the presenting process is not dependent on an underlying false belief

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

object exists

object does not exist

targetpresent

targetabsent

An excluded case

this combination is impossible

Ontological traffic rule:

to build an ontology of the types of entities in a complex domain, focus on the canonical instances

– in the Macbeth case we are dealing with what happens when language goes on holiday

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mental act about a real-world object

non-relational(~ linguistic)

relational(~ perception)

content match

content mismatch

content match

content mismatch

veridical non-veridical

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mental process content (putative) target

presenting act content of presentation

“apple”object of presentation

object exists

object does not exist

targetpresent

targetabsent

Veridical intentionality

ordinary perceptionevolutionarily most basic case

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cognitive representation

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An emotion trichotomyOccurrent emotion, e.g. when a person experiences hate for another person on a specific occasion

Emotion disposition, e.g. when a person hates someone for a long period of time (is predisposed to occurrent emotions)

Personality trait = a predisposition to emotion dispositions (e.g. sadness) of certain sorts (and thus also to corresponding occurrent emotions)

Janna Hastings, Werner Ceusters, Barry Smith, Kevin Mulligan, “Dispositions and Processes in the Emotion Ontology”, Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on Biomedical Ontology, 2011, 71-78.

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A psychological trichotomy

Occurrent mental process, e.g. when Mary sees that Jim has gone baldMental dispositions, e.g. when Mary thereafter believes for a period of time that Jim has gone baldPsychological traits = predispositions to mental cognitive dispositions (e.g. to beliefs) of certain sorts

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A psycholinguistic trichotomy

Occurrent psycholinguistic process, e.g. when Mary reads that Jim has gone baldMental dispositions, e.g. when Mary thereafter believes for a period of time what she has readPsycholinguistic traits = predispositions to psycholingistic dispositions of certain sorts

including linguistic competence

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mental

processes

• Mental processes cannot be observed.* • They must be inferred based on what we can observe.

Frishkoff: The mind as a black box

X

What does a temperature chart represent?

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Time 1 Time 2 Time 360

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What does a chart representing your pulse rate represent?

Cardiac Cycle, Left Ventricle78

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Time 1 Time 2 Time 3606570758085

What does a chart of changes in your pulse rate represent?

8010.58

10.59 1111.01

11.0211.03

11.0411.05

11.0611.07

11.0811.09

11.111.11

11.1211.13

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What does a chart of changes in the Dow Jones industrial average represent?

time

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activity during this time interval

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1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111.1 1 1

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time

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1 1 11 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 111.1 1 1

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time

What this represents is real, and not just “real”

coronary heart disease

John’s coronary heart disease

disease during phase of

asymptomatic (‘silent’)

infarction

disease during phase of early

lesions and small fibrous

plaques

stable angina

disease during phase of surface

disruption of plaque

unstable angina

instantiates at t1

instantiates at t2

instantiates at t3

instantiates at t4

instantiates at t5

time 85What this represents is real, and not just “real”

What did your temperature do over the last month, Jim?

Jim’s temperature process profile, the target of a certain sort of cognitive

selection, or cognitive profiling 86

The graph picks out just one dimension of qualitative change within a much larger conglomerate of processes within Jim

Hence ‘process profile’87

Compare perception of polyphonic music

• Cognitive selection of the cello part when you listen to a string quartet

• Picking out a certain sonic partial process within a larger body of vibrations

• Ignoring sneezes, coughs, …• (or sometimes focusing on sneezes and

coughs for diagnostic purposes)

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Compare perception of polyphonic music

• Cognitive selection of the cello part when you listen to a string quartet

• Picking out a certain sonic partial process within a larger body of vibrations

• Ignoring sneezes, coughs, …• (or sometimes focusing on sneezes and

coughs for diagnostic purposes)

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time-series graph of acoustic signal, spectrogram, formants, jaw displacement and

other speech parameters

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adding phonetic, phonemic and syllable levels

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g u t e n

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add brain

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speech is a process profile

the speech process is to the totality of acoustic signal, spectrogram, formants, jaw displacement, mental and neurological processesasthe pulse rate process is to the totality of aortic, ventricular and atrial pressure, ventricular volume, electrical activity, arterial flow, and other processes in the heart

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Breakthrough: First sound recordings based on reading human auditory cortex (PLoS Biology, January 2012)

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Top: spectrogram of words presented to subject. Middle and bottom: reconstructions of speech based on

readings from electrodes attached to patient's brain.

Pathway diagram

Pathway

Reaction

Molecular collective

Individual molecule

BFO:ProcessBFO:Independent

Continuant

BFO:Disposition

Information Content Entity

inheres in

explicitlyrepresents

implicitly represents

has participant

BULK

MOLECULARhas grain

BFO: GDC

biological pathways are process profiles

mental processes, too, are process profiles

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BFO:Entity

BFO:Continuant BFO:Occurrent

BFO:ProcessBFO:Independent Continuant

BFOMFO

BFO:Dependent Continuant

Behaviour inducing state

Cognitive Representation

BFO:Quality

Language-mediated cognitive

representation

Writing

Bodily ProcessBFO:Disposition

Linguistic competence

Linguistic competence of a population

= a language Linguistic competence of an individual

Reading

Speaking

what is a language? something analogous to a biological

species (a population of competences)

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• Examples of dispositions that are constantly being realized:– stock exchange– heart beat– brain activity– social order– language (social)