Keywords In and Out of Context

The “tip of the tongue” phenomenon is a fairly common situation in which someone is unable to retrieve a known word (usually a noun or proper name) without a protracted series of attempts at associated words or ideas to prompt one’s memory. This has been the subject of substantial research, since the causes remain unknown. However, a 2023 publication (Guichet, Clément, Sonja Banjac, Sophie Achard, Martial Mermillod, and Monica Baciu. “Modeling the neurocognitive dynamics of language across the lifespan.” Human Brain Mapping) suggests that the aging brain adopts a more efficient processing mode over time in order to retain equilibrium, though with some loss of function such as fluency in word production:

“Healthy aging is associated with a heterogeneous decline across cognitive functions, typically observed between language comprehension (LC) and language production (LP) … We performed state-of-the-art graph theoretical analysis to uncover the neural mechanisms underlying this variability. At the cognitive level, our findings suggest that LP is not an isolated function but is modulated throughout the lifespan by the extent of inter-cognitive synergy between semantic and domain-general processes. At the cerebral level, we show that default mode network (DMN) suppression coupled with fronto-parietal network (FPN) integration is the way for the brain to compensate for the effects of dedifferentiation at a minimal cost, efficiently mitigating the age-related decline in LP. Relatedly, reduced DMN suppression in midlife could compromise the ability to manage the cost of FPN integration. This may prompt older adults to adopt a more cost-efficient compensatory strategy that maintains global homeostasis at the expense of LP performances. Taken together, we propose that midlife represents a critical neurocognitive juncture that signifies the onset of LP decline, as older adults gradually lose control over semantic representations.”

I mention this only because I had some difficulty myself in remembering the name of the Austrian philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein just now and had to go through a somewhat tortuous mental process of recollection (mostly involving the late playwright Wendy Wasserstein’s play about certain Smith College graduates, oddly enough, rather than a more obvious path such as, for example, through thinking about Karl Popper and his view of the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus). Perhaps I am gradually losing control over my semantic representations, but at least these are fairly complex ones.

In any event, this post is really about Wittgenstein’s aphorism in his Philosophical Investigations: “If a lion could speak, we could not understand him.” I can’t pretend to know what Wittgenstein really meant by this enigmatic observation (other than what I’ve read about it), though studies do show that in fact lions communicate remarkably well with their conspecifics and others through roaring, and human researchers are able to understand their communication fairly well (e.g., Wijers, M., Trethowan, P., Du Preez, B., Chamaillé-Jammes, S., Loveridge, A. J., Macdonald, D. W., & Markham, A. (2021). The influence of spatial features and atmospheric conditions on African lion vocal behaviour. Animal Behaviour, 174, 63-76; McComb, K., Pusey, A., Packer, C., & Grinnell, J. (1993). Female lions can identify potentially infanticidal males from their roars. Proceedings of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 252(1333), 59-64; Grinnell, J. and McComb, K., 2001. Roaring and social communication in African lions: the limitations imposed by listeners. Animal Behaviour, 62(1), pp.93-98).

More importantly, however, as so-called apex predators ourselves, we are ignoring what lions (and other species) have to communicate through their actions and especially their reactions to the global catastrophe we are currently creating. In fact, if human scientists speak, can we understand them?