The Neural Theory of Metaphor Professor of

The Neural Theory of Metaphor

Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at UC Berkeley and a member of the Institute for Cognitive and Brain Sciences. From 1988 to 1998 he was the director of the International Computer Science Institute, where he is a member of the AI group. Jerry Feldman metaphor from language (linguistic metaphors) mind (conceptual metaphors) George Lakoff [ˈleɪkɒf] body (bodily basis of metaphor) the neural theory • of language • of metaphor brain

We activate those neurons that are needed to perform or imagine an action. nodes mirror neurons fire when A node is meaningful when its activation results in the activation of the whole neural simulation. We get inferences when the activation of a meaningful node results in the activation of another meaningful node. • we perform an action • we see someone else performing that action • we imagine that we perform or perceive the same action

One neuronal group can activate another neuronal group; that is, it can cause the neurons in the other group to fire. A can activate B. But A can also inhibit the firing of the neurons in B. Moreover, the two groups can be connected in such a way that they mutually inhibit the activation of the other. The spreading activation of neurons A and B is strengthened during learning square. Neural bindings occur when two or more conceptual entities are taken to be a single entity. Color and shape are not computed in the same part of the brain. And yet when we think of a blue square, we think of it as one entity—a blue A B The link can get stronger the more A and B fire together

Linking circuit *metonymy* types of neural circuits Mapping circuit * metaphors* Two-way linking circuits *words and grammatical constructions (which have a form paired with a meaning)* • Two groups of nodes corresponding to source and target, and a number of linking nodes that connect elements in node 1 to elements in node 2. • Neural mapping circuits that link the two domains (nodes 1 and 2) will constitute a metaphor.

Professor George Lakoff • American cognitive linguist • best known for his thesis that lives of individuals are significantly influenced by the central metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena Niels Kaj Jerne • Danish immunologist • shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Georges J. F. Köhler and César Milstein "for theories concerning the specificity in development and control of the immune system and the discovery of the principle for production of monoclonal antibodies"