CO2 GROUP
Parameterizing typicality to study brain systems underlying semantic categories
The project Parameterizing typicality to study brain systems underlying semantic categories (PTDC/PSI-PCO/118148/2010), financed by national funds of FCT.
ABSTRACT
Our conceptual knowledge is organized into categories, which help us make sense of the world, quickly, knowledgeably and pragmatically. A key property of concepts is their graded category membership, where some members are more typical of the category than others. For example, a sparrow is a good example of a bird, whereas a penguin is less so. This project aims to investigate the cognitive and neural architecture of conceptual knowledge and how it changes along ageing. The main innovative approach is the consideration of category structure as represented by the continuum of typicality ratings. The first endeavour is to widen the scope of typicality to different conceptual levels to get a hierarchical representation of category structure (sparrow, bird, living thing). The results of this study are then used to parametrically relate hierarchical category structure to brain activation and atrophy in healthy young and older adults. The project comprises three complementary studies: behavioural testing of typicality; fMRI study with young adults; fMRI ageing study.
MAIN GOALS
Advance the study of category structure to different levels of categorization.
The seminal study by Rosch and Mervis (1975) demonstrated that the judged typicality of an object (e.g., sparrow) correlates with the number of features it shares with other members of the category (i.e., bird). This finding reveals a critical structural organization of concepts. We extend this work, which examined basic categories such as birds and tools, by asking for typicality judgments across different hierarchical levels of categories. Acquiring typicality ratings across domain (living, nonliving), and animacy (animate, inanimate) helps in understanding which broader level of categorization (domain or animacy) is more representative of conceptual structure, contributing to solve a dispute in the literature (Kriegeskorte et al., 2008).
Explore how conceptual knowledge is neurologically implemented.
To investigate the neural representation of concepts, we innovate on previous fMRI studies in two ways: relate brain activation to typicality across different hierarchical levels (category and domain/animacy); and use a parametric design. We focus on category-specific regions along the fusiform gyrus and inferior and middle temporal gyri (Martin, 2007) and test if these regions are sensitive to the degree of typicality for the category they are selective to. Further, we examine if all categories demonstrate a typicality effect in the anterior temporal lobes, providing evidence for a semantic hub (Patterson et al., 2007).
Contribute to understanding how conceptual knowledge changes along ageing.
RESEARCH TEAM
Principal Investigator
Ana Luísa Raposo
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Team Members
Andrea Santi
University College London
Joana Carmo
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Mara Alves
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
J. Frederico Marques
CICPSI / FP-ULisboa
Consultant
Mathew Lambon-Ralph
MRC-CBU, University of Cambridge
FUNDING AND PARTNERS
This work was supported by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT), under Grant PTDC/PSI-PCO/118148/2010.
MAIN OUTPUTS
Alves, M., Figueiredo, P., Roberto, M. S. & Raposo, A. (2021). Using concept typicality to explore semantic representation and control in healthy ageing. Cognitive Processing.
DOI: 10.1007/s10339-021-01024-7
Raposo, A., Frade, S., Alves, M. & Marques, J.F. (2018). The neural bases of price estimation: effects of size and precision of the estimate. Brain and Cognition, 125, 157-164.
DOI: 10.1016/j.bandc.2018.07.005
Santi, A., Raposo, A., Frade, S., & Marques, J.F. (2016). Concept typicality responses in the semantic memory network. Neuropsychologia, 93, 167-175.
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.10.012
Carmo, J.C., Duarte, E., Pinho, S., Filipe, C.N., & Marques, J.F. (2016). Preserved proactive interference in autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 46, 53-63.
DOI: 10.1007/s10803-015-2540-4
Santi, A., Raposo, A., & Marques, J.F. (2015). Superordinate and domain category structure: evidence from typicality ratings. Revista Portuguesa de Psicologia, 44, 81-108.
DOI: 10.21631/rpp44_81
The concept typicality database is a publicly-available resource for researchers. It provides typicality ratings at different hierarchical levels (category, domain and animacy) for 281 object stimuli from 10 categories.
Santi, A., Raposo, A., & Marques, J.F. (2015). Superordinate and domain category structure: evidence from typicality ratings. Revista Portuguesa de Psicologia, 44, 81-108.
DOI: 10.21631/rpp44_81
Frade, S., Santi, A. & Raposo, A. (2017). Apples and olives: concept typicality responses in the semantic memory network. Encontro Anual da Associação Portuguesa de Psicologia Experimental, Porto, Portugal.
Raposo, A., Alves, M. & Santi, A. (2015). Concept typicality responses in the semantic network and along ageing.Meeting of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology, Paphos, Cyprus.
Frade, S., Alves, M., Raposo, A. & Marques, J.F. (2015). Representation and computation of prices: two sides of the same coin. Encontro Anual da Associação Portuguesa de Psicologia Experimental. Faro, Portugal.
Alves, M., Raposo, A., Santi, A., & Marques, J.F. (2015). Typicality as a critical dimension of semantic memory: convergence of cognitive and neural measures in young and old adults. Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Psicologia Experimental, Faro, Portugal.
Alves, M., Marques, J.F., & Raposo, A. (2014). Penguins can’t fly: how concept typicality affects category verification and verbal memory recognition. Annual Society for the Neurobiology of Language Conference, Amsterdam,Netherlands.
Marques, J.F., Santi, A., & Raposo, A. (2013). Typicality at superordinate and domain level: implications for understanding category-specific deficits. Scientific Meeting of the European Societies of Neuropsychology, Berlin, Germany.
Alves, M., Frade, S., Marques, J.F. & Raposo, A. (2013). A relação entre memória semântica e episódica: efeitos da tipicidade do conceito. Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Psicologia Experimental, Aveiro, Portugal.
Santi, A., Raposo A. Marques, J.F. (2013). Superordinate and domain category structure: evidence from typicality ratings. Encontro Nacional da Associação Portuguesa de Psicologia Experimental, Aveiro, Portugal.
Mara Alves, The cognitive and neural bases of semantic representation and control in healthy ageing. Doctoral Program in Integrative Neuroscience, NeurULisboa, Universidade de Lisboa. PhD scholarship FCT PD/BD/114261/2016. To be concluded in 2021.
Alexandre Pancadas, Neural correlates of concept typicality and category membership. Master in Cognitive Science, Universidade de Lisboa. To be concluded in 2021.
Monika Lezanska, Domains, categories and objects in the brain. Jagiellonian University, Poland. Erasmus+ student internship, 2015-2016.
Berfin Bastug, Typicality as a tool to investigate the neural architecture of conceptual knowledge. Bogazici University, Turkey. Student internship, 2019.
Lambon-Ralph, M. (2013). Semantic representation and its disorders. Conference at Faculdade de Psicologia, Universidade de Lisboa.