The competence to acquire the rules of language is innate, but exposure is needed to pick up the actual rules. This competence is bestowed by a still-unidentified “language acquisition device,” or LAD. Humans have this LAD. Apes lack it.

This view is supported by two complementary facts. First, apes cannot acquire true language even when they are treated like human children and trained daily in hand signs. They end up being able to sign for something they need right away, but their signing lacks generativity (the ability to generate arbitrarily complex new combinations of words). Conversely, it is nearly impossible to prevent human children from acquiring language. In some areas of the world, where people from different language backgrounds must trade or work together, children and adults develop a simplified pseudo-language—one with a limited vocabulary, rudimentary syntax, and little flexibility—called a pidgin. But the first generation of children who grow up surrounded by a pidgin spontaneously turn it into a creole—a full-fledged language, with true syntax and all the flexibility and nuance needed to compose novels, songs, and poetry. The fact that creoles arise time and time again from pidgins is compelling evidence for an LAD.

— The Tell-tale Brain

الدَهرُ أَدَّبَني وَاليَأَسُ أَغناني
وَالقوتُ أَقنَعَني وَالصَبرُ رَبانّي

وَأَحكَمَتني مِنَ الأَيامِ تَجرِبَةٌ
حَتّى نَهَيتُ الَّذي قَد كانَ يَنهاني

— علي بن أبي طالب (ع)

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Mirror neurons

العصبونات المُقَلِّدة mirror neurons هي، مثلما إسمها يبين، خلايا عصبية حرفيًا تحاكي و "تقلد" دماغ المقابل. الفكرة هي أنّك لما تسوي شغلة معينة أو تحس بشعور معين، مثلًا لما تحرّك ايدك حتى تلزم شي، أكو خلايا عصبية بدماغك رح تشتغل. الفرق بالـ mirror neurons هو أنهن يشتغلن لما تحرّك ايدك، وبنفس الوقت يشتغلن لما تشوف شخص ثاني يحرّك ايده (أو يحس بشعور معين، أو يسوي شغلة ثانية)، يعني حرفيًا يتصرفن مثل مرآة تعكس أيًا يكن اللي يصير بدماغ المقابل. هالشي يعني أيضًا أنّ هاي الخلايا ما يكدرن يميّزن بين ذاتك وبين ذات المقابل.

When a normal subject watches another person performing an action—say, squeezing a tennis ball with the right hand—the muscles in the subject’s own right hand will register a tiny uptick in their electrical “chatter.” Even though the subject doesn’t perform a squeezing action herself, the mere act of watching the action leads to a tiny but measurable increase in the action-readiness of the muscles that would contract if she were performing it. The subject’s own motor system automatically simulates the perceived action, but at the same time it automatically suppresses the spinal motor signal to prevent it from being carried out—and yet a tiny trickle of the suppressed motor command still manages to leak through and down to reach the muscles. That’s what happens in normal subjects. But the autistic subjects showed no sign of increased muscle potentials while watching actions being performed. Their mirror neurons were missing in action.

We were struck by the fact that it is precisely these presumed functions of mirror neurons—such as empathy, intention-reading, mimicry, pretend play, and language learning—that are dysfunctional in autism. (All of these activities require adopting the other’s point of view—even if the other is imaginary—as in pretend play or enjoying action figures.) You can make two columns side by side, one for the known characteristics of mirror neurons and one for the clinical symptoms of autism, and there is an almost precise match. It seemed reasonable, therefore, to suggest that the main cause of autism is a dysfunctional mirror-neuron system.

— The Tell-tale Brain

This is so fucking interesting

This is so mood

علاقتي بآنا دي ارماس:

القباب الصفر - غالية بنعلي

قُساةٌ مُحبّوك الكثيرونَ إنَّهم
‏يرونكَ إنْ لم تَلتَهِبْ غيرَ نافع

الجواهري

إحرِگني، گِتلة حطب...
بيّه ادفة وآنه احتمِل
وكَيَّف، حِرَگني ودفة...
وطَفّاني بَعد الحرگ
گتله ضميرك صِحة؟
لا، گال اريدك فحم:
مرتين راد اشتعِل

— سمير صبيح

1452: وُلِدَ لي حفيدٌ من إبني، السير بييرو، في الـ 15 من أبريل المصادف يوم السبت في الساعة الثالثة من المساء [العاشرة مساءً]. سُمّيَ ليوناردو.