ANATOMICAL BASIS OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE

这个项目的总体目标是帮助理解记忆和语言的神经基础。这两个课题之所以结合在一起，是因为我们打算研究的记忆和语言这两个方面在理论和实验上都是密切相关的。实验方法使用损伤法将神经心理学和神经解剖学的发现联系起来。其主要目的是针对不同的知识领域，进一步界定检索概念和词语的神经基础，同时解决重要的解释和方法问题。拟议的实验计划回答三个主要问题：(1)在神经解剖学上，概念提取的基础系统与相应世界的提取基础系统是可分离的吗？(2)检索不同概念类别(动作、空间关系、具体实体、抽象)的知识所需的神经系统是否部分分离，如果是，概念和单词的分离是否都得到了分离？(3)与刺激、受试者和实验任务相关的各种因素对概念和单词的提取有什么影响？通过测试与这些问题相关的特定假设，我们希望确定多成分神经系统与不同领域和加工水平之间的系统关系，并确定支撑这些关系的认知和神经因素。我们的方法利用了现代人类局灶性病变调查所提供的独特机会。这些结果将有助于在系统水平上更准确地阐述记忆和语言的神经基础，并有助于规范与概念和词汇的表征和获取有关的神经和认知结构。这些结果将是对其他方法(功能成像、电生理学)所获得的结果的补充，有助于揭示健忘症和失语症的诊断和生理病理，并有助于制定计划，以康复大量患有中风、头部损伤和阿尔茨海默病等疾病的神经患者，这些患者会出现记忆和语言障碍。

The overall goal of this project is to contribute to the understanding of the neural basis for memory and language. The two topics are combined in this project because the aspects of memory and language we propose to investigate are closely related theoretically and experimentally. The experimental approaches uses the lesion method to interrelate neuropsychological and neuroanatomical findings. The principal aim is to define further the neural basis for the retrieval of concepts and words, in regard to different domains of knowledge, while addressing important issues of interpretation and method. The proposed experiments were planned to answer three main questions: (1) Are the systems underlying the retrieval of concepts neuroanatomically separable from those underlying the retrieval of the corresponding worlds? (2) Are the neural systems required to retrieve knowledge for different conceptual categories (actions, spatial relationships, concrete entities, abstractions) partially segregated, and if so, does the segregation obtain for both concepts and words? (3) What is the influence of various factors related to the stimuli, subjects, and experimental tasks, on the retrieval of concepts and words? By testing specific hypotheses associated with each of these questions, we hope to identify systematic relationships between multi-component neural systems and different domains and processing levels, and to identify cognitive and neural factors which underlie those relationships. Our approach capitalizes on the unique opportunities afforded by the modern investigation of focal lesions in humans. The results will contribute to a more precise formulation of the neural basis of memory and language, at systems levels, and to specification of the neural and cognitive architectures pertaining to representation and access of concepts and words. The results will complement those obtained with other approaches (functional imaging, electrophysiology), shed light on the diagnosis and physiopathology of the amnesias and aphasias, and assist in the development of programs to rehabilitated the large numbers of neurological patients with conditions such as stroke, head injury, and Alzheimer's disease, who develop memory and language impairments.