类属和主题关系分离表征的脑机制

Distinct representation of taxonomic and thematic relations in brain

类属关系和主题关系是人类最常用的两种概念表征模式。类属关系表征主要依赖于事物之间的相似性以及共享的特征(例如:麻雀-喜鹊);主题关系表征基于共同事件或者情节(例如:咖啡-牛奶)。梳理这两类概念表征的研究成果发现,类属关系和主题关系存在着分离的表征加工系统。类属关系的加工需要抽取事物的静态特征,如形状、颜色等,同时需要认知控制资源的参与;主题关系的加工需要抽取事物的动态特征,如时空关系、事件背景等,需要得到记忆的支持。回顾两类关系表征加工的研究发现,它们在发展趋势、加工的时间进程以及存储加工的脑机制上都存在分离。在年龄发展趋势上,幼儿更倾向于使用主题关系进行分类。在时间进程上,主题关系激活更早。在加工的脑区方面,类属关系的加工主要和颞叶前部区域相关,该区域与前额叶有密切关联。主题关系加工主要与颞顶联合区域有关,该区域与海马、视觉中枢都有密切关联。类属和主题关系的加工基于复杂的神经网络,涉及感知觉、认知控制、记忆等相关脑区的参与,未来的研究需要进一步明确这两种重要的概念关系的表征和加工的神经机制。

Taxonomic relation and thematic relation are the most basic and widely used ways of human conception.Taxonomic relations based on similarity or shared features(e.g.,sparrow-magpie),thematic relations based on co-occurrence in events or scenarios(e.g.,coffee-milk).Here we report a systematic review of experimental psychology and cognitive neuroscience evidence of this distinction representation of taxonomic and thematic relations.The processing of taxonomic relationship needs to extract the static features of things,such as shape and color,and the participation of cognitive control resources;while thematic relationship needs to extract the dynamic characteristics,such as time-space relationship and event background of things,and needs the support from memory system.The research on the brain mechanism of these two kinds of relationships shows that they are separated in development trend,processing time and brain mechanism.In terms of age development trend,children are more inclined to use thematic relationship for classification;In the time process,thematic relationship is activated earlier.Taxonomic relationship closely related to anterior temporal lobe region which was directly connected prefrontal lobe.Thematic relationship processing is mainly related to the temporo-parietal junction,which is closely related to the hippocampus and visual cortex.The representation of taxonomic and thematic relationships is based on complex neural networks,involving the brain regions such as sensory perception,cognitive control and memory.Future researches were need to clarify the representation and processing neural network of these two important relationships.