According to Stainton, some ASD patients have shown no difficulty in understanding and using literal pragmatic systems, such as reference to specific media in nondescript terms. Although these patients are unable to grasp abstract systems such as metaphors, they show potential in literal pragmatics.

These researchers do not contest the well-established claim that people with ASD have difficulty with non-literal pragmatics, such as metaphors (“Juliet is the sun”) or irony/sarcasm (“Boy, is that a good idea”). They have, however, found that many speakers with ASD do not show the same difficulty with literal pragmatics. An example is the phrase, “I took the subway north” from a transcript of a conversation with a research participant with ASD. The use of the word “the” could indicate there is only one subway in existence going north. “The subway” could also be referring to a subway car, a subway system or a subway tunnel. Taking account of the context and the listener’s expectations, however, the individual using the phrase was able to convey the specific meaning he intended. That is, he used pragmatics effectively.

As autism is one of the most difficult neurological disorders to understand, Stainton’s research provides an important benchmark to its scientific comprehension. The breakthrough in noting ASD patient understanding of literal pragmatics has lead to the development of a rating scale of pragmatic abilities which can be used for clinical assessment. Considering the mysterious nature of autism, multidiciplanary approaches such as Stainton’s may become the standard for research in the field.

Results of a repeated-measures ANOVA indicated that subjects performed equally well on the vocabulary posttests, regardless of learning style preference. Overall, mixed-modality instruction was more beneficial than instruction in a more-preferred modality, which in turn stimulated greater learning than instruction in a less-preferred modality. Such differences were statistically significant on the 1-week and 1-month posttests. Further analysis revealed, however, that differences between the more- and less-preferred modalities were primarily an artifact of the large number of visual learners, combined with an overall effectiveness of visual instruction for all subjects, rather than a product of style matching in general.

Although these style preferences have for years allowed students to individualize learning experiences, it appears the most effective method is to combine visual, kinesthetic, and auditory media. At least, for L2 concrete noun acquisition. Sounds like a great way to keep Broca, Wernicke, and your occipital lobe busy before a Spanish midterm.

With the exception of the Eskimo-Aleut family that straddles the Bering Strait and Aleutian Islands, this is “the first successful demonstration of any connection between a New World language and an Old World language,” Nichols said.

Vajda has not yet published his findings, so the extent of his linguistic claims is not yet clear. However, based on Roach’s summary of his discussion, there are two major points of controversy. First, Roach states that Vajda found “several dozen” cognates. Whether or not the comparative method for linguistic reconstruction was used remains to be seen. Regardless, a cognate list under 50 seems a bit thin to solidify a connection at all, let alone begin reconstruction. Furthermore, the public at this point has no access to the words to assess their status as true cognates. Without a doubt, a consistent and corresponding element of grammatical structure is a strong argument for a common ancestor, but we must consider the systems of linguistic change, particularly sound change (which requires cognates), as a central factor.

A second point of controversy is the matter of depth: how long ago does the proposed connection date back? Vajda makes no direct claims, but states that this would be the oldest known language link if it corresponds to the late Pleistocene migrations evident in the archaeological record. Unfortunately, the field of linguistics currently has no reliable absolute dating techniques, and relative dating such as glottochronology, has been widely discredited. In this case, it seems the lack of cognates would help secure this relationship as an old one. If that were indeed the case, a volume of cognates would become evident in the reconstructions of Proto-Yeniseic and Proto-Na-Dene. Whether or not Vajda has taken this into consideration remains to be seen. At any rate, Nichols is not convinced of a 10,000 year-old connection:

“I don’t think there is any reason to assume the connection is [10,000 years] old … this must surely be one late episode in a much longer and more complicated history of settlement,” she said.

At this point it is very difficult to make any generalizations. Vajda has not yet published his findings, but merely opened the door to discussion on the topic. Until he does, the foundation of our support or criticism is unknown.

The Audeo is being developed to create a human-computer interface for communication without the need of physical motor control or speech production. Using signal processing, unpronounced speech representing the thought of the mind can be translated from intercepted neurological signals. By interfacing near the source of vocal production, the Audeo has the potential to restore communication to people who are unable to speak. The proposed solution is a featherweight wireless device resting over the vocal cords capable of transmitting neurological information from the brain. Using data analysis, this information can be processed into synthesized speech or a menu selection capable of conveying the basic necessities of human life.

Callahan suggests possible applications of the technology, including wheelchair control for the disabled and thought-to-speech conversion for patients with ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) who lose the ability to speak over time. Demonstrations of the device can be found in the media section of The Audeo’s website as well as at the Texas Instruments Developer’s Conference Keynote. Although the prospect of retaining voices for ALS patients sounds promising, there may be a down side. If such technology were cheap and efficient, would this bear implications on sign language? As Standard American English (and other prestige dialects) continues to be commodified on 24-hour global news networks, endangering small languages, could the prospect of a new voice place signed languages in danger?

Such a pattern may reflect a combination of psychological processes required for spontaneous improvisation, in which internally motivated, stimulus-independent behaviors unfold in the absence of central processes that typically mediate self-monitoring and conscious volitional control of ongoing performance. Changes in prefrontal activity during improvisation were accompanied by widespread activation of neocortical sensorimotor areas (that mediate the organization and execution of musical performance) as well as deactivation of limbic structures (that regulate motivation and emotional tone).

Improvisation seems to be one of the most mysterious aspects of the linguistic processes at play during musical performance. This study is of particular pertinence to the communicative aspect of performance as Jazz musicians (et al) actively communicate in abstract and specific terms with each other and their audiences. Improvisation invokes a spontaneity within this communication, parallel but according to the study, independent of the central functions required to simply play a song. What might the capability to improvise say about language as a specialized phenotype?

Limb, C.J., Braun, A.R., Greene, E. (2008). Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation. PLoS ONE, 3(2), e1679. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0001679

Ephyra retrieves answers to natural language questions from the Web and other sources. The open source version – OpenEphyra – is almost identical to the system that has been evaluated in the TREC question answering track (http://trec.nist.gov/), except that we had to exclude some 3rd party tools and code with specific hardware requirements. The result is a system that is platform-independent, easy to use, and that can be run on a standard desktop computer and evaluated on questions from the TREC 8-15 evaluations.

While possible applications of the software may span the entirety of Social and Behavioral Sciences, it appears particularly useful to Anthropology and Linguistics as a reconstruction experiment: building the necessary systems of cognition from the inside out. Understanding the subsystems of language in the context of efficiency and necessity may be a useful instrument to developing an understanding of our own language acquisition mechanisms. Furthermore, it may help us further discern differences between animal communication and modern human language.

All known Yeniseic languages seem to be related at a time depth of about 2,500 years. The large number of cognates between them permits the reconstruction of much basic vocabulary, suggesting a proto-language spoken by mobile bands of hunter-gatherer-fishers in the boreal forests of northern Inner Asia.

The reconstruction of proto-languages by way of the comparative method has always been an excellent support to migration theories. Comparison with recent biological and archaeological studies should turn some interesting conversation. When Vajda publishes, it should stir up some controversy in the anthropology community as a whole.