Formal Thought Disorder in Schizophrenia through the Lens of Chinese

[eng] This thesis examines a hitherto uninvestigated aspect of formal thought disorder (FTD), a core symptom of schizophrenia that manifests itself as speech which is difficult to follow often to the point of complete unintelligibility. Linguistic studies have found evidence of both lexico-semantic and grammatical within-sentence abnormalities in the expressed speech of schizophrenic patients with FTD, with some studies arguing that the former is critical. In Chinese, the absence of articles and the preference for ellipsis (i.e., silent phonology) instead of pronouns for reference tracking purposes make it possible to further examine the evidence they found for a possible a lexical contribution to FTD. With the goal of further investigating whether lexical as opposed to grammatical abnormality characterizes the speech of schizophrenic patients with FTD, two experiments were designed and run on Chinese-speaking schizophrenic patients, who either showed (N= 9) or did not show (N= 10) FTD. Healthy controls (N= 19) were also examined. Both experiments involved the use of Chinese classifiers (CL), which span a continuum from a lexical to a grammatical end. Experiment 1 tested the use of CLs at the level of phrases and experiment 2 at the level of sentences.Taken together, the results of both experiments support the view that there is a significant lexical contribution to the linguistic abnormality seen in FTD. This finding is in accordance with those of some existing linguistic studies of FTD, although it is not a universally accepted interpretation of the literature. The findings of this thesis are also in line with the overuse of lexical cohesion found by Rochester and Martin (1979) in FTD. The lexical aspect of classifier abnormality, however, was seen in association with some evidence of grammatical abnormality as well. Under the assumption that lexicon and grammar form a continuum, these results indicate that in the complex task of building a sentence a lexical impairment may affect grammar in a correlational manner.[cat] Aquesta tesi examina un aspecte fins ara no investigat del trastorn formal del pensament (FTD, Formal Thought Disorder), un símptoma central de l’esquizofrènia que es manifesta com a parla que és difícil de seguir, fins al punt que pot arribar a ser completament inintel·ligible. Estudis lingüístics han trobat proves d’anomalies tant lèxico-semàntiques com gramaticals a nivell de frase en la parla dels pacients esquizofrènics amb FTD; amb un èmfasi en les primeres segons alguns.En xinès, l’absència d’articles i la preferència per l’el·lipsi (i.e., per una fonologia silenciosa) en lloc dels pronoms per reprendre la referència a entitats ja introduïdes en el discurs va fer possible posar a prova la possible contribució lèxica al FTD.Amb la finalitat d’investigar si anomalies més aviat lèxiques que gramaticals caracteritzen la parla dels pacients esquizofrènics amb FTD, es van dissenyar dos experiments per realitzar amb pacients esquizofrènics de parla xinesa, amb FTD (N=9) o sense (N=10); i a controls sans (N=19). Tots dos experiments exigien usar classificadors xinesos (CL) que cobreixen un contínuum que va d’un extrem lèxic a un extrem gramatical. L’experiment 1 va testar l’ús dels CL a nivell de sintagma i l’experiment 2, a nivell de frase.En conjunt, els resultats de tots dos experiments donen suport a la visió que hi ha un factor lèxic significatiu que contribueix a les anomalies lingüístiques presents en el FTD. Aquest descobriment està d’acord amb alguns estudis existents sobre el FTD tot i que la incidència d’aquest factor lèxic no és una interpretació universalment acceptada en la bibliografia. Les troballes d’aquesta tesi, d’altra banda, estan en consonància amb l’ús excessiu de la cohesió lèxica detectat per Rochester i Martin (1979) en el FTD. L’aspecte lèxic de les anomalies amb els CL s’ha vist acompanyat de certes anomalies gramaticals també. Assumint que el lexicó i la gramàtica formen un contínuum, aquests resultats indiquen que en la complexa tasca de construir una frase, un dèficit lèxic pot afectar la gramàtica de manera correlativa

Displacement and Evolution: A Neurocognitive and Comparative Perspective

By re-evaluating Crow (2000)’s claim that “Schizophrenia [is] the price that Homo sapiens pays for language”, we suggest that displacement, the ability to refer to things and situations outside from here and now, partly realized through syntactic operation, could be related to the symptoms of schizophrenia. Mainly supported by episodic memory, displacement has been found in nonhuman animals, but more limited than that in humans. As a conserved subcortical region, the hippocampus plays a key role in episodic memory across species. Evidence in humans suggests that the parietal lobe and basal ganglia are also involved in episodic Memory. We propose that what makes human displacement more developed could rely on the better coordination between the hippocampus and the parietal lobe and basal ganglia. Given that all these areas taking part in language processing, displacement could have served as an interface between episodic memory and language

Categorical Learning and the Cognitive Foundations of Language Evolution and Development

Categorical learning plays a foundational role in language development. By reviewing comparative studies on categorical learning in humans and nonhuman animals, we show that categorical learning displays evolutionary continuity across invertebrates and vertebrates. Great apes and parrots can be trained to produce categories of (proto-)language-like symbols in different modalities. From the neurological perspective, we show that as a conserved brain structure, the basal ganglia are involved in categorical learning across species, and language processing in humans. This raises the possibility that categorical learning is one of the crucial cognitive foundations for language evolution

Categorical Learning and the Cognitive Foundations of Language Evolution and Development

Categorical learning plays a foundational role in language development. By reviewing comparative studies on categorical learning in humans and nonhuman animals, we show that categorical learning displays evolutionary continuity across invertebrates and vertebrates. Great apes and parrots can be trained to produce categories of (proto-)language-like symbols in different modalities. From the neurological perspective, we show that as a conserved brain structure, the basal ganglia are involved in categorical learning across species, and language processing in humans. This raises the possibility that categorical learning is one of the crucial cognitive foundations for language evolution

Categorical perception and language evolution: a comparative and neurological perspective

This work was funded by the Spanish MICINN (PID2021-128404NA-I00)

How displacement might have evolved

Displacement is usually regarded as one of the distinctive design features of human language. Previous discussions about its evolutionary origins have focused on the possibility that the communication systems of other species show evidence of displacement. Nonetheless, as with other components of human language, tracing the evolutionary history of displacement would benefit from a bottom approach. Accordingly, in this paper, we specifically build on diverse neurobiological findings (but not only) to propose a novel evolutionary itinerary for displacement as found in language. We support the view that changes in selected brain areas (including the hippocampus, the basal ganglia, the thalamus, and the parietal cortex), in part resulting from our trend towards a more prosocial behavior (aka human self-domestication), might have potentiated our episodic memory and mental time travel abilities, in turn strengthening displacement in language and cognition

Research on Efficient Feature Generation and Spatial Aggregation for Remote Sensing Semantic Segmentation

Semantic segmentation algorithms leveraging deep convolutional neural networks often encounter challenges due to their extensive parameters, high computational complexity, and slow execution. To address these issues, we introduce a semantic segmentation network model emphasizing the rapid generation of redundant features and multi-level spatial aggregation. This model applies cost-efficient linear transformations instead of standard convolution operations during feature map generation, effectively managing memory usage and reducing computational complexity. To enhance the feature maps’ representation ability post-linear transformation, a specifically designed dual-attention mechanism is implemented, enhancing the model’s capacity for semantic understanding of both local and global image information. Moreover, the model integrates sparse self-attention with multi-scale contextual strategies, effectively combining features across different scales and spatial extents. This approach optimizes computational efficiency and retains crucial information, enabling precise and quick image segmentation. To assess the model’s segmentation performance, we conducted experiments in Changge City, Henan Province, using datasets such as LoveDA, PASCAL VOC, LandCoverNet, and DroneDeploy. These experiments demonstrated the model’s outstanding performance on public remote sensing datasets, significantly reducing the parameter count and computational complexity while maintaining high accuracy in segmentation tasks. This advancement offers substantial technical benefits for applications in agriculture and forestry, including land cover classification and crop health monitoring, thereby underscoring the model’s potential to support these critical sectors effectively

A germline variant in the PANX1 gene has reduced channel function and is associated with multisystem dysfunction

© 2016 by The American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc. Pannexin1 (PANX1) is probably best understood as an ATP release channel involved in paracrine signaling. Given its ubiquitous expression, PANX1 pathogenic variants would be expected to lead to disorders involving multiple organ systems. Using whole exome sequencing, we discovered the first patient with a homozygous PANX1 variant (c.650G→A) resulting in an arginine to histidine substitution at position 217 (p.Arg217His). The 17-year-old female has intellectual disability, sensorineural hearing loss requiring bilateral cochlear implants, skeletal defects, including kyphoscoliosis, and primary ovarian failure. Her consanguineous parents are each heterozygous for this variant but are not affected by the multiorgan syndromes noted in the proband. Expression of the p.Arg217His mutant in HeLa, N2A, HEK293T, and Ad293 cells revealed normal PANX1 glycosylation and cell surface trafficking. Dye uptake, ATP release, and electrophysiological measurements revealed p.Arg217His to be a loss-of-function variant. Co-expression of the mutant with wild-type PANX1 suggested the mutant was not dominant-negative to PANX1 channel function. Collectively, we demonstrate a PANX1 missense change associated with human disease in the first report of a PANX1-related disorder