Language research seminars, Modeling the Neural Syntax

[Bijoy Misra]

Dear friends,

Good morning.  We continue our exploration of mapping of

syllables in the brain.  We will present our thoughts in four

seminars scheduled to be held monthly.  The thesis is that

the brain is a total engine that codes all information in self-

generated neural syntax which manifest as acoustic syllables

on demand.  I am giving the schedule of the seminars

in the flier below.  The first seminar is coming Saturday by 

a local neuroscientist Dr. Bharani Padmanabhan, MD. PhD.

You can get the Zoom meeting link by sending mail to 

idcin...@gmail.com

Best regards,

Bijoy Misra

[BVK Sastry (G-S-Pop)]

Namaste Misra ji

Pl. send Zoom meeting link.

Regards

BVK Sastry

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "भारतीयविद्वत्परिषत्" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to bvparishat+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bvparishat/CALw-kjW%2BEKmaK2MiCdmMQszfYtsJWNOweUWrqfEox5P6EkB04A%40mail.gmail.com.

[kamalesh pathak]

Sarvebhyo namo namah

This will be an interesting and eye opener for interested, because as a priest I observe many pandits chanting mantras with speed,accuracy and rythem, I wonder how brain stores and delivers these much, sharing the link for webinar will be a great favour for scientific Sanskrit lovers

Again regards to vidvaj janas

Kamlesh Pathak 

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bvparishat/03e501da0380%249a9bf420%24cfd3dc60%24%40gmail.com.

[Bijoy Misra]

Dear Kamaleshji,

Thank you for your note.  I am writing our thesis below.  It should be read carefully and critically.

When priests are reciting these days, they are trying to reproduce sounds.  Reproducing sounds is done

through earning and by the practice of repetition. This is different than creating sounds from perception. 

The priest has little idea what he/she is talking about.  He/she is not describing a perceived scene.  

Reproducing sound is behavioral, it is done through imitation.  Modern language training is based on 

such processes.  Here the teaching is to manipulate the tongue such that the right sound is produced. 

It comes from the animal studies that recitation is a prescribed task.

The neural process is based on creating the sound.  This is where the Vedas come in.  We go back to

a state when the objects had no label.  There is no prescription. Here the expression would be in the 

built-in syllables and the associated sounds. .We have to check how a syllable is produced as the 

object is perceived.  As you study the Vedas, you notice that the composition is in individual units of 

sound.  The unit can be a complex construct but is expressed in a single breath, hence is independent 

of the next construct.  Possibly the next unit is connected to the previous unit but they are uttered 

independently. .  

We have to assume that the Vedic composers did absorb the natural scenes - the sunrise, rains, trees,

wind, cyclone, river, fire, devastation, cows, animals, people - and some time tried to express them in

sounds.  We can assume that it has to be a natural process endowed in people who have poetic abilities

to deeply dive into the scene.  it might take hundreds of years of absorption and creating desire to

express.  The scene must be "seen" to be expressed.  The idea is that the transformation of the scene

into sound is through these complex sound units as uttered.  It is possible that a whole suukta is not

uttered at a single time but is developed through a poetic yogic process over days/months.. The scenes 

repeats and hence there is continuity. 

Panini with Yaska analyzed the uttered sounds and gave us a table of basic spoken units that he

discovered as associated with the prevailing practice.  This discovery suggests that the world of perception

can be decomposed into a set of sixty four basic phonetic units for expression.  We can create complex

sounds from these basic phonetic units.  The scientific question is what the individual phonetic unit may

represent from the universe of perception.

We are doing four seminars to analyze the problem.  The reception of audio signals was done last month.

https://youtu.be/xIArY-0ZfRY  

Here the idea is that the stimulus first enforces a mood.  It is created as you read this mail.  We know

from experience (natyashastra analyzes) that we have a few principal moods.  We think this is the

first classification of the signal.  Then the signal gets distributed among the brain neural center.

The neural centers are the modern finds which possibly are the basic cognitive tokens in the brain.

Our idea is that the neural centers gather together to form various phonetic units.  We are looking

for the path.  We will discuss our findings on Nov 18 in a seminar.

Forced by the signal, the neural centers connect to other neural centers to create neural clusters 

A neural cluster is transient, we are investigating the construction process.  The neural cluster is

possibly close to an expressible unit.    We do a seminar on Dec 9. 

Then we will visit Panini to discuss how the neural investigation connects to the Vedas.  The perception

translation to a sentence.  The sentence has a cognitive structure.  It has melody and rhythm. We 

investigate how such structure might come about.  What is the brain melody? We do the seminar 

in late December or early January. 

Ours is a very small effort to map the brain in the field of cognition.  We are driven by the scientific

intuition that an expression is not arbitrary, it is a non-trivial human capacity, The object has to be 

fully understood in order to be expressed.  The circuit is scientific.  The same scene will provoke

similar neural processes if the context can be recreated.  The object reveals itself neurally which 

we think is the objective truth.  This neural expression can be captured if we can still ourselves to 

understand the object.  We think it was possible by the Vedic poets because of the circumstance.

Some people search for the Vedic language.  Wherever it is it must start with the scenario 

I have outlined above.  Once the syllables are expressed or some connection is made to objects,

we use them without the object revealing itself.  Our assertion is that  the basic unit is a syllable

that can be uttered in a single breath.  Syllables are combined to create groups(words) through

a different neural process.  Words get imitated and get distorted to form various languages.

The tree remains a "tree" in the neural process for all human beings.

Sorry for the long mail.

Best regards,

Bijoy Misra  

  .   .       

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/bvparishat/CAOoo0jgY8WNOK%2BdeEUskOUEHUVhROxV1X_RmX2f5WJC2YSBPwQ%40mail.gmail.com.

[Bijoy Misra]

A major change from "earning" to "learning".(third line)

The neurocenters in play. 

Dear Kamaleshji,

Thank you for your note.  I am writing our thesis below.  It should be read carefully and critically.

When priests are reciting these days, they are trying to reproduce sounds.  Reproducing sounds is done

through learning and by the practice of repetition. This is different than creating sounds from perception.