Starts 10 Feb 2016 11:00
Ends 10 Feb 2016 12:00
Central European Time
May the faculty of language emerge from a glassy phase transition?
ICTP
Central Area, 2nd floor, ex-SISSA building
In LIMBO we have explored latching dynamics in simplified cortical networks as a model of spontaneous production, for example of sentences.
Latching, or jumping from one attractor state to the next, emerges beyond a critical value of network connectivity, without any change or extra ingredient in organization, a clue to the possible evolutionary path of a cortex capable of sustaining language.
In departing from the simplest model towards the complexity of real languages, however, we face the major effect of correlations and of the resulting disorder-dominated dynamics, which call for the refinement and application of statistical physics tools to linguistic data.
Latching, or jumping from one attractor state to the next, emerges beyond a critical value of network connectivity, without any change or extra ingredient in organization, a clue to the possible evolutionary path of a cortex capable of sustaining language.
In departing from the simplest model towards the complexity of real languages, however, we face the major effect of correlations and of the resulting disorder-dominated dynamics, which call for the refinement and application of statistical physics tools to linguistic data.