The 5th International Forum on Language, Brain, and Cognition
Natural Language in Computer and Brain Sciences:
Toward a Unified View

Dates: Friday and Saturday, 28-29, October 2005
Venue: Hotel Sendai Plaza (Map/Access)
Language: English
Program: Here

Sponsored by:
The Tohoku University 21st Century COE Program in Humanities
Supported by:
Tohoku University, University of Saarland,
and German Embassy in Tokyo

Admission Free

Leading experts from Germany and Japan in the fields of psycholinguistics, natural language processing, and cognitive neuroscience give lectures on recent findings in their own scientific studies and discuss the possibility of a unified perspective on human language research in the future. Held in the framework of the 'Germany in Japan Years 2005/2006' Program organized by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Japan, this forum invites researchers who are working at or were involved with the University of Saarland, Germany, with which Tohoku University has had long-term relationships in terms of research and education. Furthermore, graduate students and postdocs of the Tohoku University 21st Century COE Program report on their studies.

Welcome Address
Professor Takashi Yoshimoto ( President, Tohoku University )

Invited Speakers:
Professor Matthew Crocker ( Saarland University, psycholinguistics ) [Abstract]
Professor Etsuro Mori ( Tohoku University, behavioral neurology ) [Abstract]
Professor Manfred Pinkal ( Saarland University, natural language processing ) [Abstract]
Professor Jun-ichi Tsujii ( University of Tokyo, natural language processing ) [Abstract]
Professor Shravan Vasishth ( University of Potsdam, computer linguistics and neurolinguistics ) [Abstract]

Program:
DAY 1: Friday, 28 October 2005
DAY 2: Saturday, 29 October 2005

DAY 1: Friday, 28 October
 

9:00-9:30           Registration

9:30-9:35           Opening Remarks

Kaoru Horie (COE Program, Tohoku University)

9:35-9:45           Welcome Address

Takashi Yoshimoto (President, Tohoku University)

Session 1 (9:45-11:15)  Chair: Shinji Ido

9:45-10:15         “A Skolem Term Analysis of Internally Headed Relative Clause in Japanese”

Rui Otake (Tohoku University)

10:15-10:45       “A New Lyrics Recognition Method Based on Finite State Automaton for Music Information Retrieval”

Motoyuki Suzuki, Toru Hosoya, Akinori Ito and Shozo Makino (Tohoku University)

10:45-11:15       “Dynamic Interpretation of Possible Worlds”

Daisuke Bekki (University of Tokyo)

11:15-11:30       Break

Session 2 (11:30-12:30)  Chair: Daiko Takahashi

11:30-12:00       “Linear Order Constraints on Japanese Floating Quantifier Construals”

Masahiro Kobayashi (Tottori University)

12:00-12:30       “An Analysis of Differences in Japanese Existential Expressions as Revealed by Event-Related Brain Potentials”

Koutarou Nomura, Tsutomu Fujinami (JAIST), and Masanori Higuchi, Natsuko Hatsusaka (Kanazawa Institute of Technology)

 12:30-13:50       LUNCH Break

 Invited Lecture 1  Chair: Masatoshi Koizumi

13:50-15:00       “Sentence Processing as Skilled Memory Retrieval: A Computational Model”

Shravan Vasishth (University of Potsdam)

 15:00-15:30       COFFEE Break

Invited Lecture 2  Chair: Kyoko Suzuki

15:30-17:00       “Semantic Breakdown in Dementia: A Clue to Semantics in the Brain”

Etsuro Mori (Tohoku University)

DAY 2: Saturday, 29 October

 9:00-9:30           Registration

Session 3 ( 9:30-11:00)  Chair: Motoaki Sugiura

9:30-10:00         “Cortical Representation during Processing of Passive Sentences in L1 and L2: An fMRI Study”

Satoru Yokoyama (Tohoku University)

10:00-10:30       “A Memory-based Account of Some Linear Order Effects in English”

Kei Takahashi (University of Tokyo) and Kiyoshi Ishikawa (Hosei University)

10:30-11:00       “What Can Be Observed from Functional Neuroimaging?”

Jorge Javier Riera Diaz (Tohoku University)

 11:00-11:10       Break

 Invited Lecture 3  Chair: Kaoru Horie

11:10-12:40       “The Coordinated Interplay of Scene and Utterance in Real-Time Comprehension"

Matthew Crocker (University of Saarland)

 12:40-13:50       LUNCH Break

 Invited Lecture 4  Chair: Kei Yoshimoto

13:50-15:20       “Frame-based Lexical Semantic Resources for Information Access”

Manfred Pinkal (University of Saarland) 

15:20-15:50       COFFEE Break

Invited Lecture 5  Chair: Akinori Ito

15:50-17:20       “How Can the Computational Approach Bridge the Two Disciplines, Brain Science and Linguistics?”

Jun'ichi Tsujii (University of Tokyo) 

17:20-17:30       Break

Discussion

17:30-18:15       S. Vasishth, M. Pinkal, M. Crocker, J. Tsujii, and K. Yoshimoto

18:15-18:20       Closing Remarks

Shoichi Iwasaki (COE Program, Tohoku University)

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