Abstract
The present review aims to summarize the debate in contemporary neuroscience between inborn and experience-dependent models of conceptual representations that goes back to the description of category-specific semantic disorders for biological and artifact categories. Experience-dependent models suggest that categorical disorders are the by-product of the differential weighting of different sources of knowledge in the representation of biological and artifact categories. These models maintain that semantic disorders are not really category-specific, because they do not respect the boundaries between different categories. They also argue that the brain structures which are disrupted in a given type of category-specific semantic disorder should correspond to the areas of convergence of the sensory-motor information which play a major role in the construction of that category. Furthermore, they provide a simple interpretation of gender-related categorical effects and are supported by studies assessing the importance of prior experience in the cortical representation of objects On the other hand, inborn models maintain that category-specific semantic disorders reflect the disruption of innate brain networks, which are shaped by natural selection to allow rapid identification of objects that are very relevant for survival. From the empirical point of view, these models are mainly supported by observations of blind subjects, which suggest that visual experience is not necessary for the emergence of category-specificity in the ventral stream of visual processing. The weight of the data supporting experience-dependent and inborn models is thoroughly discussed, stressing the fact observations made in blind subjects are still the subject of intense debate. It is concluded that at the present state of knowledge it is not possible to choose between experience-dependent and inborn models of conceptual representations.
Highlights
Contemporary debates about the foundations of categories and concepts have very ancient roots
Bright et al (2005) reviewed recent neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies and found that the human perirhinal cortex and contiguous anteromedial temporal structures provide the neural infrastructure for making fine-grained discriminations among objects
GENERAL DISCUSSION AND TENTATIVE CONCLUDING REMARKS If we try to summarize the data gathered in the present review, which are synthesized in Table 1 we can say that there are two main reasons why it is difficult to choose between the experience-dependent and the inborn models of conceptual representations
Summary
Contemporary debates about the foundations of categories and concepts have very ancient roots. According to Plato and other rationalist philosophers concepts are mental entities and are fundamentally distinct from sensory impressions. By contrast, according to Aristotle and other empiricist philosophers all concepts are derived from sensory experiences. The rationalist position has been endorsed in more recent years by Pylyshyn (1973), Fodor (1975), Caramazza et al (1990) and Patterson and Hodges (2000). These authors proposed the existence of a unitary, abstract and amodal semantic system, that is accessed by the highest levels of the various perceptual modalities (“structural descriptions”), which include a complete perceptual specification of objects prior to their meaningful recognition
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