Скачать или смотреть The Writing Brain and The Free Energy Principle

Brandon University
Faculty of Science Seminar Series
2023-24
https://www.brandonu.ca/science/seminar-se...

February 2, 2024
Roberto Limongi
Department of Psychology
Brandon University

The Writing Brain and The Free Energy Principle

Abstract:
Since the advent of artificial intelligence–based language models on March 14, 2023, the following question is omnipresent in discussions about the usefulness of learning to write in the academia: if an artificial intelligence system can produce a text for us, why should a student learn to write at all? The motivation for this question rests on the false belief that language in general and writing in particular are only communication “skills”. However, language also influences our brains and our minds—an epistemic effect that does not occur in non-living (self-organizing) systems.

That our brains and minds change while we speak or write is an unquestionable truth among poets and philosophers alike. However, the scientific world has been reluctant to accept this epistemic function of language due to the lack of “empirical” evidence. Our most recent work in neuropsychiatry (schizophrenia) provides the requested evidence, showing how language changes our brain connections and the organization of our minds. This evidence rests on the free energy principle, the normative idea that the brain minimizes free energy while producing language—as a special case of action. Drawing on these recent results, I currently address the challenge of explaining another longstanding tenet: that writing increases academic learning. This epistemic effect results from the minimization of the free energy in the student’s brain.

In this (math-free and non-technical talk), I will discuss how the free energy principle of brain functioning accounts for the epistemic effect of language, with translational applications in academic writing. I will describe, our neuroimaging, computational, clinical, and classroom findings. Crucially, I will make the case for the possibility of estimating the linguistic phenotype of an individual writer, with implications in the treatment of neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., ADHD) and academic integrity.

Biography:
Roberto Limongi is a Ph.D. in Brain and Cognitive Sciences who recently joined Brandon University in the Department of Psychology as an assistant professor. He is establishing the writing-brain laboratory, dedicated to the study of the cognitive, computational, and neural mechanisms of the effect of writing on the brain and the mind. His most important contributions have been published in Biological Psychiatry, Schizophrenia Research, Schizophrenia Bulletin, Neuroimage, and Journal of Writing Research. He recently published the mental-chronometry theory of writing to learn, a work with which he received the 2020-2022 John R. Hayes Award for Excellence in Writing Research.