Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture

Alexandra (Sasha) Key | Professor, Marcus Autism Center, Emory University School of Medicine  "Building a functional communication system: Does the baby have a say?"  For a long time, language development has been framed mainly in the context of nature-nurture interactions. However, research in non-typical development suggests that another critical contributor should be considered. In this talk, I will present findings from neurophysiological studies in infants and children to demonstrate the importance of self-initiated active engagement with spoken communication for supporting more optimal developmental outcomes. Our data will demonstrate that choosing to engage with speech, an indication of social motivation, is an integral part of the previously established associations between the neural systems and the environmental factors contributing to individual differences in language development. Expanding the general conceptual approach to language to include nature-nurture-person will allow us to better understand the sources of variability in functional communication abilities across the full spectrum of developmental outcomes. If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] | Threads [https://www.threads.net/@emorycmbc?xmt=AQGzTNMiT8uSfduIV3Ro2CXeZaltQeCodYTvGWWpt3kSMGM] | Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]

Anna Ivanova [https://psychology.gatech.edu/people/anna-ivanova] | Assistant Professor, School of Psychology | Georgia Tech College of Sciences  "Dissociating Language and Thought in Humans and in Machines"  “What is the relationship between language and thought? This question has long intrigued researchers across scientific fields. In this talk, I will propose a framework for clarifying the language-thought relationship. I will introduce a distinction between formal competence—knowledge of linguistic rules and patterns—and functional competence—understanding and using language in the world. This distinction is grounded in human neuroscience, where a wealth of evidence indicates that formal competence relies on a set of specialized brain regions (“the language network”), whereas functional competence requires the use of multiple non-language-specific neural systems. I will then present a series of case studies illustrating how the formal/functional competence distinction can help (a) delineate the functional architecture of the human brain, providing a framework for studying complex cognitive behaviors, such as computer coding and legal reasoning; (b) understand the capabilities and limitations of today’s large language models, particularly in the realm of general world knowledge.” If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] | Threads [https://www.threads.net/@emorycmbc?xmt=AQGzTNMiT8uSfduIV3Ro2CXeZaltQeCodYTvGWWpt3kSMGM] | Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]

Leah Krubitzer [https://krubitzer.faculty.ucdavis.edu/]| MacArthur Fellow   Professor of Psychology | University of California, Davis "Combinatorial Creatures: Cortical Plasticity Within and Across Lifetimes"  "The neocortex is one of the most distinctive structures of the mammalian brain, yet also one of the most varied in terms of both size and organization. Multiple processes have contributed to this variability including evolutionary mechanisms (i.e., changes in gene sequence) that alter the size, organization and connections of the neocortex, and activity dependent mechanisms that can also modify these same features over shorter time scales. Because the neocortex does not develop or evolve in a vacuum, when considering how different cortical phenotypes emerge within a species and across species over time, it is also important to consider alterations to the body, to behavior, and the environment in which an individual develops. Thus, changes to the neocortex can arise via different mechanisms, and over multiple time scales. Brains can change across large, evolutionary time scales of thousands to millions of years; across shorter time scales such as generations; and across the life of an individual – day-by-day, within hours, minutes and even on a time scale of a second. The combination of genetic and activity dependent mechanisms that create a given cortical phenotype allows the mammalian neocortex to rapidly and flexibly adjust to different body and environmental contexts, and in humans permits culture to impact brain construction during development." If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] | Threads [https://www.threads.net/@emorycmbc?xmt=AQGzTNMiT8uSfduIV3Ro2CXeZaltQeCodYTvGWWpt3kSMGM] | Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]

Ivana Ilic [https://music.emory.edu/people/biography/Ilic-Ivana.html] | Music Theory, Emory University Jasna Veličković [https://jasnavelickovic.com/index.htm] | Composer and Performer "How Do We Know It's Music? On Musical Capacities of the Electromagnetic Field"  What happens when the electromagnetic signal is not only deliberately made audible, but also exploited with a specifically musical aim? In this presentation, I investigate the distinctively musical use of electromagnetism in art from the 1960s until the present day. The two case studies include the works by Christina Kubisch (b. 1948) and Jasna Veličković (b. 1974). While the two artists share a commitment to a modernist quest for new sounds, they investigate the musical capacities of the electromagnetic field in distinctive ways. Kubisch operates primarily as a sound artist, within the audio-visual realm. Her installations include induction coils whose sounds are picked up by the visitors through specially designed headphones. The “musicality” of those works arises from the visitors’ movement within the exhibition space and appears as a completely individual and internalized event. As a composer, she also “finds” music in the sounding of electromagnetic fields that she explores in various places throughout the world. Veličković works from a predominantly auditory perspective. Her unambiguously musical creative process assumes both the compositional application of interference and its inclusion in a purposefully musical performance. The two artists’ approaches meet in an embodied reality of an intense and unique musical experience. If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] | Threads [https://www.threads.net/@emorycmbc?xmt=AQGzTNMiT8uSfduIV3Ro2CXeZaltQeCodYTvGWWpt3kSMGM] | Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]

Richard Moore [https://www.richardmoore.ie/children-in-crossfire] | Executive Director, Children in Crossfire "Freedom, Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Lessons from Northern Ireland" Dr. Moore’s talk is part of the CMBC's Spring 2024 sponsored course “Empathy, Theater and Social Change” taught by Dr. Lisa Paulsen and Dr. Brendan Ozawa-de Silva. This lunch talk was Co-sponsored by Emory’s Center for Contemplative Science and Compassion-Based Ethics & Woodward Academy “Freedom, Forgiveness and Reconciliation: Lessons from Northern Ireland” Dr. Richard Moore was blinded at the age of ten by a British soldier during the height of the Troubles in Northern Ireland in 1972. Despite this horrific experience, Richard chose forgiveness over revenge, and he later befriended the soldier who shot him. In this talk, Dr. Moore will share his powerful story of healing and reconciliation, exploring the various dimensions of forgiveness as an emotion, a disposition, and a decision, and the potential of forgiveness in mending communities torn apart by conflict. He will also discuss the role that “educating the heart” for empathy and compassion can play in overcoming hatred and division, drawing from his work with the nonprofit he founded, Children in Crossfire, and his forthcoming book Freedom in Forgiveness.   If you would like to become an AFFILIATE [https://cmbc.emory.edu/about/join.html] of the Center, please let us know. Follow along with us on Instagram [https://www.instagram.com/emorycmbc/] | Threads [https://www.threads.net/@emorycmbc?xmt=AQGzTNMiT8uSfduIV3Ro2CXeZaltQeCodYTvGWWpt3kSMGM] | Facebook [https://www.facebook.com/EmoryCenterForMindBrainAndCulture/]