Mahon Bradford Z, Hickok Gregory
Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, University of Rochester, Meliora Hall, Rochester, NY, 14627-0268, USA.
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, USA.
Psychon Bull Rev. 2016 Aug;23(4):941-58. doi: 10.3758/s13423-016-1045-2.
How are the meanings of words, events, and objects represented and organized in the brain? This question, perhaps more than any other in the field, probes some of the deepest and most foundational puzzles regarding the structure of the mind and brain. Accordingly, it has spawned a field of inquiry that is diverse and multidisciplinary, has led to the discovery of numerous empirical phenomena, and has spurred the development of a wide range of theoretical positions. This special issue brings together the most recent theoretical developments from the leaders in the field, representing a range of viewpoints on issues of fundamental significance to a theory of meaning representation. Here we introduce the special issue by way of pulling out some key themes that cut across the contributions that form this issue and situating those themes in the broader literature. The core issues around which research on conceptual representation can be organized are representational format, representational content, the organization of concepts in the brain, and the processing dynamics that govern interactions between the conceptual system and sensorimotor representations. We highlight areas in which consensus has formed; for those areas in which opinion is divided, we seek to clarify the relation of theory and evidence and to set in relief the bridging assumptions that undergird current discussions.
单词、事件和物体的意义在大脑中是如何被表征和组织的？在该领域，这个问题或许比其他任何问题都更能探究一些关于心智和大脑结构的最深层次、最基础的谜题。因此，它催生了一个多元化且多学科的研究领域，带来了众多实证现象的发现，并推动了一系列理论立场的发展。本期特刊汇集了该领域领军人物的最新理论进展，展现了关于意义表征理论具有根本重要性的一系列观点。在此，我们通过提炼贯穿本期各篇稿件的一些关键主题，并将这些主题置于更广泛的文献背景中，来介绍本期特刊。围绕概念表征研究可组织起来的核心问题包括表征形式、表征内容、大脑中概念的组织，以及支配概念系统与感觉运动表征之间相互作用的加工动态过程。我们突出已形成共识的领域；对于存在意见分歧的领域，我们试图阐明理论与证据的关系，并凸显支撑当前讨论的桥梁性假设。
