module 1: principles of neurobiology and communication

define communication

communication - from latin comunicare, to share - the “transmission of information”

what do we communicate from our external and internal environments?

• we can share events in our internal + external environment

  • external - objects, internal - thoughts, feelings, emotions

what is a signal and how is it used in transmission?

• signal - variation of a quantity OR change in entity over time that conveys information when it’s detected

• communication transmits from detection to measurement

  • A sends signal to B

what 3 things does communication utilize as a biological process?

1. physiological events in the body - body parts help speak, facial/body movements to gesture

2. social interactions - we live amongst others, we form relationships that shape who we are; we change through experiences

3. cognitive events - perception, attention, learning, memory, affect

physiological events in the body as a biological process to communicate

• physiological events - body parts for breathing and digestion to speak

  • reproduce

  • vocal production - respiration (lungs), phonation (vocal cords), and articulation (vocal tract) generate pressure waves and shape them into precise speech sounds

    • we have control over what sounds we make

  • we figure out that we can use our body parts to make sound

social interactions as a biological process to communicate

• social interactions - we live w/ other people and form relationships with them, these relationships shape who we are

  • we communicate in the way we do bc of social interactions

  • communities are social groups - people who are in proximity to each other or have a characteristic in common

  • communities can share similar attributes / interests / goals (groups of artists)

  • communities can be groups of interdependent organisms (ex. birds) - these groups can involve exchange of signals

cognitive events as a biological process to communicate

• cognitive events - happens through cognition → mental action / process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and senses

  • messages / signals make their way to you through the senses

  • these senses allow you to perceive yourself

  • there are multiple modes of sensing outside of the 5 main senses (ex. perception)

principles of communication

we can look at phases of our own development to get a hint of what evolution looked like

phase 0 of communication

• phase 0 - gesturing came before spoken word

• we evolved to become bipedal - we can now gesture with not only our facial muscles (expressions), but also our arms

• language occurs in a stereotypical progression during childhood

  • “when you born, you’re a blob!”

  • gesture milestones, learning speech

  • as babies, we learn by observing / imitation

  • we go from blob to bipedal by learning to control our body (and the same goes for saying our first word!)

phase 1 of communication

• phase 1 - pictoric and written word

  • “if i write smtg, i want you to reproduce what i wrote”

  • ex. we can understand that we formed relationships with other species from pictoric representations

phase 2 and phase 3 of communication

• communication forms - phase 2 → print

  • print can be in form of paper, we share our experiences

• communication phase 3 → image (media)

  • how to make images / media

  • gesturing, spoken word, pictoric, written word, print

  • photography

  • radio

  • cinema

  • telecommunication

what are the principles of communication?

1. purpose - has a purpose

2. codification - some kind of system to transmit experiences; ex. gesturing, spoken word (order of words), etc.

3. ethics

what is purpose as a principle of communication?

• communication - “A social process of interactions involving messages that results in the generation of meaning (understanding)”

• the meaning = purpose, purpose is defined by context (examples of context)

  • social - human centered

  • technological - signals / channels of communication

  • cognitive - knowledge about how smtg works

• what other purposes can be fulfilled?

  • influencing public opinion

    • propaganda

    • “engineering of consent” - experts molding public opinion to secure popular approval for corporate / political goals

what is codification as a principle of communication?

• codification refers to the degree of organization in a communication system

• feature configurations are used to share meaning thoruhg perceptual associations

  • ex. “+” alone vs. “A + B”

• examples:

  • human language

  • directing transit via gestures

• feature configuration examples → red-yellow-green stop light

• feature configuration uses rules that define first-order and second-order syntaxes, this allows the degree of codification in a communication system can transform from low to high codification level

  • directly related to syntax

what are the 3 levels of codification

low, medium, high

low level codification

• first order syntax present, but associations not consistent

  • haptics, chronemics, artifacts, aesthetics (arts)

medium level codification

• first order syntax associations more reliable, second order syntax not well defined

  • kinesics, vocalics, proxemics, physical appearance

high level codification

• high level codification - rules for first order and second order always present

  • language, musical, mathematical notation systems, even cs languages

first order vs. second order syntax in codification

first order - basic atomic units; second order - putting those units together

3 social guidelines that focus on issues of right and wrong

law, ethicality, morality

we acknowledge the diff. ways to coexist with each other

law as a social guideline

• legal actions - actions that follow formal regulations created and endorsed by a society

• failing to follow regulations results in punishment by the society’s criminal justice system

• ex. US federal constitutional republic - legislative branch, executive branch, judicial branch

ethicality as a social guideline

ethical actions are social standards about what ought to be right - what people should and shouldn’t do

morality as a social guideline

personal perceptions of what is right vs. wrong, doesn’t necessarily clash with ethicality

beliefs and values

• beliefs - assumptions of what we consider to be true

• values - evaluative beliefs that aren’t just right vs. wrong (ex. beautiful vs. ugly, good vs. bad, etc.)

• beliefs and values are linked to emotions and can drive behavior

information theory

• transmitter (sender) → channel (+ some noise) → receiver (aka perceiver)

• sender uses a channel to send information, the channel may have noise that degrades the information → result is sent to receiver

example of voice in information theory

• ex.

  • your voice → reaches a transducer that generates electronic signal → processes and goes to a transmitter → becomes electromagnetic wave → translated into electronic signal → reaches transducer and produces signal → signal reaches someone’s ear

• infants can produce sounds through basic physiological processes

do autonomous vehicles communicate?

• we can think about autonomous vehicles - what does it mean for a manmade device to be autonomous (spoiler alert it’s not)

  • the car, without a direct input, will move → something needs to start that movement in the absence of someone at the wheel (it will carry out the functions it’s designed to do as long as it’s plugged into power, for example)

  • the object is not autonomous (like a baby), because w/out human input, it cannot be maintained

do flowers and animals communicate?

• what do moths, bats, and hummingbirds have in common → they fly

  • common ancestors a long time ago, but they all like the flower nectar

  • we can see elementary science of communication → the flowers have diff. colors and scents, which are signals that trigger a perception in the animal and invite the animal to feed on the flower (some animals are picky in what flowers they feed on)

  • as the animal feeds on the flower, they are promoting the reproduction of that flower

  • this means the flowers are signaling to reproduce, even if the plant doesn’t know that this signal is useful to the animal as well (food!)

• reproduction and food are the main things to communicate for in animals

the origins of communication systems

1. developmental

2. evolutionary

3. anthropological

what are cleavage events / what happens during them?

during cleavage events, the cells divide and the number of them grows exponentially

sequence of animal embryogenesis

1. fertilization (ovum + sperm)

2. zygote (single cell)

3. morula (multicellular)

4. blastura

5. gastrula (organogenesis)

6. larva (fetus in humans) - humans don’t have a larval stage, 23 stages of fetal development where you go from a single cell to a multi-cell organism

7. adult

what is an application of life cycle flexibility / plasticity?

• environmental issues cause animals to adapt (ex. living in water vs. not living in water)

  1. an example is the development of gills → aquatic animals use gills to breathe

  2. this provides the exchange of gases throughout the structure (of cells)

how does the brain develop from a neural tube to a growing brain?

• the embryo has a neural tube, and cells migrate to it, differentiating into neurons and glial cells (2 main types of cells in nervous system)

  1. an axis develops in the direction opposite of the face

  2. the axis is broken at some point, there’s the growth of the forebrain, it folds in on itself → this characterizes human brain development

timeline of human development in utero

1. conception @ week 0

2. if you were born at 20 weeks of gestation, your chances of surviving are slim

   1. they have touch, some movement/motor activity, has vestibular system, but blind and deaf

   2. motor activity of quickening - feeling startled when a pregnant woman feels movement in the fetus

3. term birth @ week 40

4. humans, unlike another animals, make our chances of survival guaranteed (think of our neonatal intensive care units in healthcare today)

   1. at the same time, we are selecting for the survival of individuals that wouldn’t have made it

5. during growth, some cells will die

vestibular system

• a sensory system located in your inner ear that controls your sense of balance, spatial orientation, and movement coordination

• developed at around week 20

motor activity of quickening

• feeling startled when a pregnant woman feels movement in the fetus

• happens at around week 20

when is language developed in a fetus?

language occurs in a stereotypical progression during childhood (post natal, out the womb)

how can we track language progression in a child that is born deaf?

if a child is born deaf, they show language progression milestone trajectories when communication input is given via signed/spoken modalities → sign language

how can we track language progression in a child that is born blind?

if a child is born blind, they reach language progression milestone trajectories when communication input is given via spoken and touch modalities → braille

how does language development correlate with the development of the cerebral cortex?

• it’s a cycle!

• motor behavior (limbs, face, etc.) → inference → cognition (imitation, morality, numerosity, etc) → expression → cortical motor outflow → repeat!

how many layers does the cortex have and how do the layers form?

1. layer 1 - most superficial, layer 6 is the deepest layer

2. neurons in layer 6 are born first, neurons in layer 1 are born last

3. cells are born and migrate to the top, creating layers bottom to top

what is the most important part of human auditory system development?

• most important is transition to post natal development

• hearing is formed before we are born, but the maturation of the connections happen after we’re born

what is developed in human babies post-natally and are we conscious of it?

• myelin (sensorimotor control), walking, curiosity (cognition, motivation), social environment (reinforcement) is formed post-natally

• these events of developments happen in an automated way- we aren’t fully conscious of it

salamanders and humans as examples of life cycle flexibility / plasticity

• salamander as an example of plasticity (life cycle flexiblity)

  • having gills to breathe underwater vs. having lungs to breathe above ground

• humans also have life cycle flexibility

  • ex. body proportions - during growth, the head goes from taking up 50% of your body proportions to 20%

  • we recalibrate as we grow up - esp the ways we perceive others and ourself

what are the two main bones that the cranium (skull) is consisted of

• neurocranium (the top part with sensory organs, ex. eyes, taste, etc.)

• viscerocranium (the bottom part that holds the structure that contains the organs)

sutures in the neurocranium

• places where diff. bone plates come together, consistent across humans

• not fully formed, esp in a newborn

age at which cranial sutures ossify

frontal suture - childhood, rest of the sutures will form post-natally (20-50 years of age)

when did life begin?

• life began billions of years ago

• hypothesis that the origin of life is viral cells

• animals are relatively new to the history of life; humans started around 7 million years ago

cell theory and neuron doctrine

• cell theory - all organisms are made of cells, some are single cells and some are multicellular

  • relatively new discovery (proposed in 19th century)

• neuron doctrine (1890s) - found that the nervous system was made w/ cells

basics of cell structure and function

cell membrane, cytoplasm, cell organelles

cell membrane

• cell membrane - distinguishes the inside/outside of the cell

  • outside - extracellular, inside - intracellular

  • functions: transport, signaling

cytoplasm

• cytoplasm - watery solution inside the cell

  • all cells live in an aqueous environment

  • functions: biochemistry, exoskeleton

cell organelles

• cell organelles - some cells have organelles, we have cells w/ organelles

  • functions: gene expression, metabolism, protein synthesis & degradation

genetic changes in humans over time

• humans are primates - common ancestors are now extinct, and those ancestors branched off and gave rise to other species

  • these genetic changes are involved in brain size, cognitive, social and physiological aspects of humans

  • dependent on how much cells divide, information gets transferred across

how does an organism form from a single cell

• the large cell is cleavage event’ed into lots of tiny cells → single cell becomes multicellular organism

• there is transfer of information that cells use to form positional and structural changes

• leads to organelle genesis, organs form, and it will be ready to leave its protective layer

central dogma of molecular biology

• central dogma of molecular biology - genetic information is transferred in one direction, DNA → RNA → proteins

  • ex. transfer from protein to dna or protein to rna hasn’t been observed

what is signaling used for?

• enhancing interactions between organisms, with consequences for survival and reproduction

  • mental activity is due to cells in the nervous system that are embodied

3 levels of signaling in cells

• first messenger system - chemical communication between cells

• second messenger system - activation of changes in the internal biochemistry of cells

• third messenger system - activation of mRNA and protein synthesis to change cellular structure