evolution of language and brain conference

[maxstam]

CONFERENCE ANNOUNCEMENT

Title: "Mirror Neurons and the Evolution of Brain and Language".

Hosted by Hanse Institute for Advanced Study
Delmenhorst, GERMANY

Primary organizers:
Vittorio Gallese (University of Parma) and Maxim Stamenov (Bulgarian
Academy of Sciences)


Theme:
The aim of this conference will be to bring together scholars from
several disciplines and fields of study for discussion of some of the
basic problems and perspectives related to the discovery of a new class
of neurons in the monkey premotor cortex — mirror neurons.
 The point of this discovery is that it shed new light on the neural
correlate of the social sharedness of intentions and actions. The action
of mirror neurons (MNs) seems to provide a bridge and mapping between
one's own behavioral actions (and their potential monitoring) with the
observed actions of other individuals. The consequences of this
discovery can have implications for our understanding of animal
communication and cognition and human cognition and consciousness and
the way of their genetic inheritance and implementation in the brain.
 The discovery of MNs may provide a new, although still sketchy,
neurobiological basis to account for the emergence of language (cf. G.
Rizzolatti & M. Arbib. 1998. "Language within Our Grasp". Trends in
Neurosciences 21:188-194, for orientation). This assumption is founded
on the following premises:

(a) Language skill has emerged through evolution by means of a process
of preadaptation: specific behaviors and the nervous structures
supporting them, originally selected for other purposes, acquire new
functions that side and eventually supersede the previous one;
(b) A continuity can be traced between language skill and pre-language
brachio-manual behaviors, being the primate premotor cortex the common
playground of this evolutionary continuity;
(c) The specialization for language of human Broca's region derives from
an ancient mechanism, the mirror system, originally devised for action
understanding.

The orientation of organizers is to bring together scholars interested
in the co-evolution of language, cognition, and consciousness along the
following lines, among others:

(i) mirror neurons, the brain's microstructure and the specificity of
their performance in monkeys, primates and humans in supporting
high-level cognitive processing;
(ii) the macrostructure of the brain and its evolution from monkeys to
primates to man in the development of specific cognitive functions;
(iii) the philogenetic and ontogenetic links between behavioral action,
gesture, and communicative verbal action in the development of the
language faculty.

Conference format
The conference will host 15 invited speakers. There are 24 slots
available for oral presentations and 30 slots for poster presentations.
Submissions are invited for selection for oral papers (with 20 min.
presentation time and 10 min. discussion time), as well as for poster
presentations. Unless explicitly specified, submitted abstracts will be
considered for both oral and poster presentation. Posters will be
displayed during the whole duration of the meeting and a special session
of the conference will be dedicated to their discussion.
 The invited speakers who already confirmed their participation are
(please note that the titles of their talks are preliminary ones):

Harold BEKKERING (Munich): "The Observation and Execution of Finger and
Mouth Movements";
Stein BRATEN (Oslo): "Altercentric Perception and Participation: Infant
and adult dialogue partners";
Colin BROWN (Nijmegen): "Brain-Imaging Studies of Language Comprehension
and Production: A focus on Broca's region";
Luciano FADIGA (Parma): tba;
Leo FOGASSI (Parma): "The Neural Correlates of Action Understanding in
Nonhuman Primates";
Marc JEANNEROD (Lyon): tba;
Charles LI (Santa Barbara) & Jean-Marie HOMBERT (Lyon): "The
Evolutionary Origin of Language: A linguistic perspective";
Michael PETRIDES (Montreal); tba;
Daniel POVINELLI (New Iberia, LA): "Evolution of Cognitive Diversity";
Giacomo RIZZOLATTI (Parma): "Action Understanding in Humans";
Gerhard ROTH (Bremen): "Is the Human Brain Unique?";
Sue SAVAGE-RUMBAUGH (Atlanta, GA): "Mirror Neurons and Interspecies
Intersubjectivity";
Maxim STAMENOV (Sofia): "Human Verbal Communication as Monitored Joint
Action";
Michael STUDDERT-KENNEDY (New Haven, CT): "Imitation and Evolution of
Particulate Speech";
Edda WEIGAND (Muenster): "Constitutive Features of Human Dialogical
Interaction";

 In addition to regular program, the conference will feature three
evening discussions dealing with the problems of:

(1) the evolution of the brain from monkeys to humans (neuroscience
perspective);
(2) the co-evolution of executive functions and cognitive abilities from
monkeys to humans (cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience
perspective); and
(3) the evolution of communication and language (the perspective of the
language sciences).

Abstract submission:
Abstracts of 500 words are requested by March 15, 2000 both for oral
presentations and posters. The abstracts should be sent preferably by
e-mail (in ASCII) to:

hardopo at uni-bremen.de (Dr. Mechthild Harders-Opolka);
gallese at ipruniv.cce.unipr.it (Dr. Vittorio Gallese);
maxstam at bas.bg (Dr. Maxim Stamenov).

In case an author prefers to send the abstract in hard copy, three
copies of it should be sent to Dr. Mechthild Harders-Opolka, Hanse
Institute for Advanced Study, Lehmkuhlenbusch 4, D-27753 Delmenhorst,
GERMANY.

Publication policy:
The organizers intend to publish a collective volume with selected
contributions to the conference after the meeting takes place.


Important information:

Deadline for abstract submission: March 15, 2000;

Confirmation of acceptance of selected papers: April 01, 2000;

Time of the conference: July 05-08, 2000;

Conference site: Hanse Institute for Advanced Study, Lehmkuhlenbusch 4,
D-27753 Delmenhorst, GERMANY;

Conference fee: DM150,-; DM100,- for students;

Questions and inquiries about the program: maxstam at bas.bg (Maxim
Stamenov);

Questions and inquiries about local organization, housing, etc.:
hardopo at uni-bremen.de (Dr. Mechthild Harders-Opolka).