ANATOMICAL BASIS OF MEMORY AND LANGUAGE

这个项目的总体目标是促进对记忆和语言的神经基础的理解。在这个项目中，这两个主题结合在一起，因为我们打算研究的记忆和语言方面在理论和实验上密切相关。实验方法使用病变法将神经心理学和神经解剖学的发现联系起来。主要目的是进一步定义概念和单词检索的神经基础，考虑到不同的知识领域，同时解决解释和方法的重要问题。拟议的实验计划回答三个主要问题：(1)在神经解剖学上，概念检索的基础系统与相应世界检索的基础系统是否可分离？(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，概念和单词是否都获得分离？(3)与刺激、被试、实验任务相关的各种因素对概念和词语检索的影响是什么？通过测试与这些问题相关的特定假设，我们希望确定多组分神经系统与不同领域和处理水平之间的系统关系，并确定这些关系背后的认知和神经因素。我们的方法利用了人类局灶性病变的现代调查所提供的独特机会。这些结果将有助于在系统层面上更精确地描述记忆和语言的神经基础，并说明与概念和单词的表示和访问有关的神经和认知架构。该结果将补充其他方法（功能成像，电生理学）所获得的结果，阐明失忆症和失语症的诊断和生理病理学，并协助制定项目，以恢复大量患有中风，头部损伤和阿尔茨海默病等神经系统疾病的患者，这些患者患有记忆和语言障碍。

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.