ROSE: A gentle and versatile robotic gripper for efficient crop harvesting

Researchers introduce an innovative soft robotic gripper that can adapt to complex shapes, sizes, and the delicate nature of crops

Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology

 

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ROSE consists of a cup-shaped chamber with two soft layers. Rotating the inner layer leads to the formation of wrinkle-like inward folds, shrinking the central space, which allows ROSE to gently grasp objects of different shapes, sizes, and textures.

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Credit: Van Anh Ho from JAIST.

Ishikawa, Japan -- Robotic grippers have become essential across many industries, including manufacturing, packaging, and logistics, mainly for pick-and-place tasks. Recently, the demand for robotic grippers has also expanded into agriculture, where they are used for harvesting and packaging tasks. However, conventional robotic grippers struggle with the unique shapes, properties, and delicate nature of different crops. Consequently, there has been an increasing demand for more versatile robots that can adapt to objects with various shapes, sizes, and textures.

Robotic grippers that are made of soft materials have emerged as a potential solution to the above problem. However, current methods for adapting these grippers to complex geometries rely on complex control and planning generated by data-based models. These models require a large amount of data, limiting their general applicability. Additionally, integrating a sensory system into their soft body requires complex designs and sophisticated fabrication methods.

To this end, a team of researchers from the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST), led by Associate Professor Van Anh Ho, along with Assistant Professor Nguyen Huu Nhan and doctoral course student Nguyen Thanh Khoi, developed an innovative soft robotic gripper named ROtation-based Squeezing grippEr or ROSE.

“ROSE takes inspiration from the blooming states of a rose to generate grasping action. It offers a simpler approach to real-farm harvesting by gently grasping objects using a unique "wrinkling" phenomenon. Unlike conventional grippers, ROSE doesn’t require complex control and planning strategies to adapt to various agricultural products with diverse shapes, sizes, and textures,” explains Prof. Ho. They also employed a simulation model to fully understand and optimize the grasping mechanism of ROSE. This study was published in a special issue, RSS2023, of The International Journal of Robotics Research.

ROSE consists of an isolated cup-shaped chamber formed by two thin, soft elastomer layers, with a separation between the interior and outer layers. Rotating only the inner layer using an external motor produces a deformation in the layers. Specifically, this twisting motion of the inner layer results in a strain mismatch between the outer and inner layers, resulting in the formation of a series of wrinkle-like inward folds, a process termed ‘Wrinkling’. This unique mechanism shrinks the central space in ROSE, which allows it to gently grasp any object present within this central space.

To refine this mechanism, the researchers studied the ‘wrinkling’ process through a finite element method-based simulation model. The simulations revealed a correlation between different geometrical features, including thickness, diameter, and height. Notably, they found that an appropriate distribution of ROSE’s skin thickness, that is, the separation between the layers, has a significant influence on its grasping performance. As a result, the researchers tested two different thickness distribution strategies, namely linear and non-linear distribution, which significantly improved ROSE’s grasping performance compared to a constant thickness. Moreover, the simulations also highlighted the importance of the ratio between the gripper's diameter and height. The simulation results were validated through various experiments, verifying ROSE’s capability to carry out tasks that are difficult for traditional grippers.

Furthermore, the researchers demonstrated the practical applications of ROSE in agriculture by using it to harvest strawberries and mushrooms. ROSE achieved high success rates in picking up these crops in multiple trials, regardless of whether they were stiff or soft. It also succeeded in picking up a clump of mushrooms without breaking any piece, provided the clump size fit within the grasping space.

“ROSE is one of the first grippers to utilize buckling deformation as a gripping method, challenging the conventional mindset that the buckling phenomenon is an undesired feature. Moreover, the practical application of ROSE in agricultural settings is a game-changer for real-farm harvesting. ROSE’s ability to adapt to varying textures and shapes makes it highly effective in these tasks. This not only improves efficiency but can also address the growing labor shortages in agriculture, particularly in regions with aging populations,” highlights Prof. Ho emphasizing the potential of ROSE.    

This study marks a significant advancement in robotic grippers. With gentle yet adaptable grasp positions, ROSE might usher in a new era of automated farming.

 

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Reference

Title of original paper:	Soft yet secure: Exploring membrane buckling for achieving a versatile grasp with a rotation-driven squeezing gripper
Authors:	Khoi Thanh Nguyen, Nhan Huu Nguyen, and Van Anh Ho
Journal:	The International Journal of Robotics Research
DOI:	10.1177/02783649241272120

 

                                           

About Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan

Founded in 1990 in Ishikawa prefecture, the Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST) was the first independent national graduate school in Japan. Now, after 30 years of steady progress, JAIST has become one of Japan’s top-ranking universities. JAIST counts with multiple satellite campuses and strives to foster capable leaders with a state-of-the-art education system where diversity is key; about 40% of its alumni are international students. The university has a unique style of graduate education based on a carefully designed coursework-oriented curriculum to ensure that its students have a solid foundation on which to carry out cutting-edge research. JAIST also works closely both with local and overseas communities by promoting industry–academia collaborative research.

 

About Associate Professor Van Anh Ho from Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Japan

Dr. Van Anh Ho is an Associate Professor at the Nanomaterials and Devices Research Area, Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (JAIST). He obtained his M.S. and Doctoral degrees from Ritsumeikan University in 2009 and 2012, respectively. His research interests include tangible devices, manipulation, tactile sensing, and soft Robotics. At JAIST, he leads the Ho laboratory, and has over 80 publications with over 1000 citations. Professor Ho is a member of The Robotics Society of Japan, and has also been honored with many awards including the IEEE Nagoya Section Young Researcher Awards 2019.

 

Funding information

This work was supported by the JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (KAKENHI) Project 24K00847.

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Journal

The International Journal of Robotics Research

DOI

10.1177/02783649241272120 

Article Title

Soft yet secure: Exploring membrane buckling for achieving a versatile grasp with a rotation-driven squeezing gripper

Article Publication Date

23-Sep-2024

 

Researchers identify sex differences in genetic vulnerability to psychotic disorders

The importance of considering sex differences in genetic studies

University of Barcelona

 

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From left to right, experts Araceli Rosa, Marina Mitjans and Bàrbara Arias at the Faculty of Biology of the University of Barcelona.

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Credit: UNIVERSITY OF BARCELONA

A team of researchers from the University of Barcelona and the Centre for Biomedical Research in the Mental Health Network (CIBERSAM) has published a pioneering study that reveals significant findings in the field of genetic psychiatry from the perspective of separate gender analysis. Firstly, the paper confirms the existence of a shared genetic vulnerability between schizophrenia and other psychiatric disorders such as bipolar disorder and major depression. In addition, and in an innovative way, the study highlights that this is more important in men than in women with schizophrenia.

This study, published in the journal European Neuropsychopharmacology, was co-led by professors Bárbara Arias and Araceli Rosa, from the Faculty of Biology and the Institute of Biomedicine of the University of Barcelona (IBUB), and CIBERSAM. The first authors of the study are Marina Mitjans (UB-IBUB-CIBERSAM) and Sergi Papiol, also a member of CIBERSAM and researcher at the Max Planck Institute of Psychiatry in Munich (Germany).

In this study, the authors analyzed a sample from CIBERSAM that included 1826 patients with psychosis and 1372 control patients. The aim was to analyze how polygenic scores (PGS) for schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depressive disorder contribute to the risk of developing psychotic disorders, and how these associations differ between men and women.

“Our results reinforce the hypothesis that there are common genetic factors that contribute to the risk of developing these disorders, suggesting the existence of a shared biological basis between them”, says Marina Mitjans, first author of the study and also a member of the UB’s Department of Genetics, Microbiology and Statistics and the Hospital Sant Joan de Déu de Barcelona (HSJD).

In addition, the results of this study indicate that there are differences between men and women in genetic vulnerability to psychotic disorders, which could have important implications for understanding the sex differences observed in prevalence, clinical presentation and response to treatment. “Our study underlines the importance of considering sex differences in genetic studies to develop more personalized strategies in prevention, diagnosis and treatment in clinical practice”, says Bárbara Arias, member of the Department of Evolutionary Biology, Ecology and Environmental Sciences of the UB and co-principal investigator of the G08 group of CIBERSAM.
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The principal researchers of the study agree that “this study is an example of the power of interdisciplinary collaboration between CIBERSAM groups to advance the understanding of complex mental disorders”.

 

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Journal

European Neuropsychopharmacology

DOI

10.1016/j.euroneuro.2024.04.017 

Method of Research

Observational study

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

. “Shared vulnerability and sex-dependent polygenic burden in psychotic disorders

In an era of climate change, clean water and reliable water storage for floods and droughts is a possibility!

Evaluating water storage stability in simulated long-term aquifer storage system over a year. Ensure stable water quality in a simulated aquifer storage system linked to a physical sedimentation process

News Release 26-Sep-2024

National Research Council of Science & Technology

 

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Aquifer Storage Simulation Pilot System Conceptual Diagram / A simulated aquifer storage pilot system combining a physical sedimentation process with a simulated aquifer storage soil column that injects, stores, and retrieves river water at approximately two-week intervals for 13 months.

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Credit: Korea Institute of Science and Technology

In recent years, the world has seen a recurrence of extreme floods and droughts due to climate change. In response to this, aquifer storage technology is being used for actual water supply in countries such as the United States, the Netherlands, and Australia. In South Korea, it rains intensively in the summer and extreme rainfall occurs, causing increasing difficulties in water supply in rural areas and island areas other than urban areas. In this situation, aquifer storage technology is attracting attention as a way to stably store and supply water.

Dr. Seongpil Jeong and Kyungjin Cho of the Center for Water Cycle Research at the Korea Institute of Science and Technology (KIST) have developed an aquifer storage technique that could improve the potential for stable water storage.

The injection of surface water into aquifers without proper treatment can be limited by pore clogging caused by microorganisms that feed on organic matter, such as assimilable organic carbon, present in the injected water. The KIST research team had previously shown that assimilable organic carbon in artificial raw water can be reduced by microorganisms under simulated aquifer storage conditions. In this study, the researchers used real river water rather than artificial water to simulate the periodic injection and recovery process of aquifer storage.

The experiment lasted for about 13 months, with river water being injected into a sandy layer in the ground at two-week intervals and the water being withdrawn again two weeks later to observe changes in organic matter and microorganisms over the course of the experiment. The experiment showed that despite seasonal changes in river water, organic matter concentrations in soil organic matter and stored water remained stable, suggesting that a simple physical sedimentation process without chemical treatment maintained stable water quality for a year without pore clogging.

To understand why water quality remains stable in aquifer storage systems, the team investigated changes in the microbiome. They found that the microbiome, which can feed on organic matter present in real river water, changes seasonally. This suggests that the microbes in the aquifer storage system reduced organic matter, preventing pore clogging and contributing to stable water quality.

The experimental techniques used in this study can be used to test domestic aquifer storage sites and propose pretreatment processes for influent conditions, and it is believed that continued analysis of organic matter and microorganisms will be necessary for the stable operation of aquifer storage systems in the future. In addition, water quality assessment of the recovered water and appropriate pretreatment processes are needed to ensure that the system is stable.

"This research contributes to the stable operation of aquifer storage technology, which is being utilized as a large-scale water storage technology to address the problem of water supply imbalance," said Dr. Seongpil Jeong and Kyungjin Cho from KIST. "The study of long-term organic matter and microbiome changes in a pilot-scale aquifer simulation system is the first of its kind globally and has potential for future expansion."

Changes in organic matter concentration within the soil column and in the recovered water / Increase in cumulative organic matter bound to sand by location within the soil column and resultant stable organic matter concentration in the recovered water

Microbiome changes in a soil column / Changes in the microbiome (microbial community) inside the soil column. Visualization of the change in dominant microorganisms inside the soil column during the operation period (13 months).

Credit

Korea Institute of Science and Technology

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KIST was established in 1966 as the first government-funded research institute in Korea. KIST now strives to solve national and social challenges and secure growth engines through leading and innovative research. For more information, please visit KIST’s website at https://eng.kist.re.kr/

This research was supported by the Ministry of Science and ICT (Minister Yoo Sang-im) under the KIST Institutional Program and Climate Change Impact Minimization Technology Development Project (2020M3H5A1080712). The results of this research were published in the latest issue of the international journal, Chemical Engineering Journal (IF 13.3, JCR field 3.1%).

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Journal

Chemical Engineering Journal

DOI

10.1016/j.cej.2024.154137 

Article Title

Comprehensive assessment for the seasonal variations of organic compounds and core soil microbiome in the simulated pilot-scale aquifer storage and recovery (ASR) system

Addressing global water security challenges: New study reveals investment opportunities and readiness levels

 News Release 27-Sep-2024

Advanced Science Research Center, GC/CUNY

NEW YORK, September 27, 2024 – Water scarcity, pollution, and the burden of waterborne diseases are urgent issues threatening global health and security. A recently published study in the journal Global Environmental Change highlights the pressing need for innovative economic strategies to bolster water security investments, focusing on the “enabling environment” that influences regional readiness for new business solutions.

Initiated and led by researchers at the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC), the study utilizes a comprehensive set of geographical data — including climate, digital river networks, and human water usage patterns — to pinpoint areas at risk for water insecurity and potential conflict. The researchers discovered striking disparities in readiness across the globe, indicating varying capacities to address these critical challenges.

“We found that 71% of the world’s population has high existing water security needs, and after evaluating the potential for private investments, we found that 64% of the global population could benefit from these efforts,” said Charles Vörösmarty, principal investigator and founding director of the Environmental Sciences Initiative at the CUNY ASRC.

The study also revealed that 81% of identified investment opportunities are located in middle-income countries, while many low-income nations face significant barriers to making these essential investments and will likely need to depend on public financing and international aid to address water insecurity.

A recent United Nations report indicates that 80% of all nations are experiencing shortfalls in the financing necessary to meet their water supply and sanitation needs. Projections estimate that demand for water infrastructure and services could require investments amounting to several trillions of dollars by 2030.

“This research underscores that successful water investments hinge not just on addressing immediate water needs, but also on strengthening the governmental and societal frameworks that facilitate private sector engagement,” said lead author Pamela Green, principal water and climate scientist at TerraBlue Science LLC.

As water security continues to emerge as a critical global challenge, this study provides valuable insights for policymakers, businesses, and investors seeking to develop effective public-private partnerships aimed at delivering sustainable water solutions.

The interdisciplinary team behind this study includes experts from the CUNY ASRC, TerraBlue Science LLC, University of Massachusetts, Harvard Extension School, GIZ GmbH, and the United Nations Environment Program-Finance Initiative.

 

About the Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center
The Advanced Science Research Center at the CUNY Graduate Center (CUNY ASRC) is a world-leading center of scientific excellence that elevates STEM inquiry and education at CUNY and beyond. The CUNY ASRC’s research initiatives span five distinctive, but broadly interconnected disciplines: nanoscience, photonics, neuroscience, structural biology, and environmental sciences. The center promotes a collaborative, interdisciplinary research culture where renowned and emerging scientists advance their discoveries using state-of-the-art equipment and cutting-edge core facilities.

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Journal

Global Environmental Change

DOI

10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2024.102906 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Mapping a sustainable water future: Private sector opportunities for global water security and resilience

Article Publication Date

27-Sep-2024

 

Breaking the chain of intergenerational violence

People subjected to violence, adverse experiences in childhood are more likely to abuse older generations

University of Tokyo

 

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To offer a clearer view of the connection between ACEs and intergenerational violence, the effects of other variables were accounted for and excluded, notably: sex, age, educational attainment, family living together, employment status, marital status, equivalent income, self-rated health, depression, mental illness other than depression, alcohol consumption, and frequency of going out (at least once a month).

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Credit: Koga et al. 2024, JAMA Network Open

New research shows the connection between adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), such as physical or emotional abuse, and an increased risk of people growing up to be abusive against older generations. While generational trauma is known to be passed down from parent to child, the study showed that it can also reverberate upwards from parent to older generations. A survey of over 13,000 people in Japan found that about half had one or more ACEs. Of these, 8.5% self-reported committing some form of physical or verbal abuse against people aged over 65. An important contributing factor was the person’s mental and physical health, both of which are known to be affected by ACEs. By better understanding the causes of intergenerational violence, researchers hope to develop guidelines and support to help people break the chain.

You may have heard the old saying “spare the rod, spoil the child.” However, much to the contrary, studies have shown that subjecting children to physical punishment or abuse, emotional abuse, neglect or household dysfunction has long-lasting negative effects on their physical and mental health. Referred to as adverse childhood experiences, this abuse can lead to a self-perpetuating cycle. Later, the children of parents subjected to ACEs are more likely to experience some form of abuse or neglect too. 

 

While ACEs are known to increase the risk of generational violence being passed down, a new study by a team including researchers from the University of Tokyo has shown that this behavior can also travel upwards. 

“Our study confirmed that people who had adverse childhood experiences (when aged zero to18), had a higher risk of committing violence and verbal abuse against adults aged 65 and older. The study also showed that psychological factors were the most important contributor,” explained lead author Chie Koga, project assistant professor from the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Tokyo.

 

The research team studied 13,318 survey responses by women and men (almost evenly split) aged 20 to 64 in Japan. They found that those who reported a higher number of ACEs were more likely to commit physical or verbal abuse against older adults. The ACEs included were: interpersonal loss (parental loss or divorce), family psychopathy (parental mental disease and violence in family), abuse (physical and psychological) and neglect.

 

Results showed that 8.5% of participants self-reported committing some form of abuse against older adults. Almost half of the respondents had no ACEs, about 36% had one and about 14% had two or more. The risk of perpetuating elder abuse was over three times higher for people with one ACE and almost eight times higher for people with two or more ACEs, compared to those without. 

 

“My hypothesis is that some forms of violence are due mainly to socioenvironmental factors. I believe that violence is the last resort that an individual takes to protect their dignity,” said Koga. “However, especially in Japanese society, the idea that violence is soley the fault of the person who commits it and that they alone are responsible for their own actions is rampant. One reason for this is the enormous lack of research, so this study is one way to advance research in violence epidemiology.”

 

Other factors which most notably contribute to whether a person with ACEs committed elder abuse included depression, other mental illnesses and how respondents rated their health. Lesser but still relevant factors were living arrangements, marital status, income and whether the person went out at least once a month.  

 

“The results of these studies indicate that the cycle of violence can extend to all vulnerable groups. At the same time, one of the social and environmental risk factors for elder abuse has been newly identified, and the importance of preventing violence has been reemphasized,” said Koga. “However, it’s important to note that not all people with ACEs are repeat offenders of violence. Therefore, we would like to examine the mitigating factors in the future.”

 

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Paper

Chie Koga, Taishi Tsuji, Masamichi Hanazato, Atsushi Nakagomi, Takahiro Tabuchi. Intergenerational Chain of Violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Elder Abuse Perpetration. JAMA Network Open. 27th September 2024. 

doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.36150

Useful Links:

RCAST: https://www.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/

Funding:

This study was supported by the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) KAKENHI Grant Numbers (21H04856; 20K10467; 20K19633; 20K13721, 24K16531), the JST Grant Number JPMJPF2017, the Health Labor Sciences Research Grant 21HA2016, the grant for 2021–2022 Strategic Research Promotion of Yokohama City University) (No. SK202116) and the research program on “Using Health Metrics to Monitor and Evaluate the Impact of Health Policies,” conducted at the Tokyo Foundation for Policy Research. Dr. Koga had access to all data from the study and is responsible for the completeness of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis.

Competing interests

None

About the University of Tokyo

The University of Tokyo is Japan’s leading university and one of the world’s top research universities. The vast research output of some 6,000 researchers is published in the world’s top journals across the arts and sciences. Our vibrant student body of around 15,000 undergraduate and 15,000 graduate students includes over 4,000 international students. Find out more at www.u-tokyo.ac.jp/en/ or follow us on X at @UTokyo_News_en.

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Journal

JAMA Network Open

DOI

10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2024.36150 

Method of Research

Survey

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Intergenerational Chain of Violence, Adverse Childhood Experiences, and Elder Abuse Perpetration

Article Publication Date

27-Sep-2024

 

Grant helps UT develop support tool for extreme weather events

University of Tennessee at Knoxville

 

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University of Tennessee campus

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Credit: University of Tennessee

The University of Tennessee and the UT Institute of Agriculture have received a $434,038 Seeding Solutions grant from the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR) to develop and test a decision support tool for farmers to better manage crop production from risks of extreme weather events across the Tennessee River Basin and surrounding southeast US regions.

UT is providing matching funds for a total investment of $966,119 over the three-year project.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that extreme weather is responsible for 90% of crop losses. These estimates are generally based on annual climate conditions. However, extreme short-term weather events, termed “flash” droughts and floods, can severely impact crop production. These events have not been researched to the same extent, leading to development of better crop management tools for farmers.

Using novel combinations of watershed hydrology models and monitoring data, including satellites and on-site field monitoring, UT researchers, led by John Schwartz, the director of the Tennessee Water Resources Research Center and professor in the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, are developing a decision support tool allowing stakeholders to prepare for unpredictable conditions brought about by flash floods and drought. The collaborative research team includes Ming Jin, director of the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment, and Brian Leib and Shawn Hawkins with the UT Institute of Agriculture.

The researchers are exploring how existing hydrologic and crop models can be combined with historical trends and current monitoring data to inform crop choice, irrigation needs, and farm management. Results are expected to help minimize crop losses and increase yield, maximize water use efficiency, and enhance the resilience of agricultural systems to climate change.

“The decision support tool for row crop producers being developed by our UT research team will provide them useful predictive information,” Schwartz said. “It will be particularly useful for short-term weather hazards, considering in recent years weather patterns in this region have more often shifted to a wetter spring followed by a flash drought early summer, which creates producer challenges of when to plant and whether irrigation is needed.”

 

How are pronouns processed in the memory-region of our brain?

Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience - KNAW

 

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Shrek concept cell

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Credit: Matthew Self

A new study shows how individual brain cells in the hippocampus respond to pronouns. “This may help us unravel how we remember what we read.”

Read the following sentence: “Donald Trump and Kamala Harris walked into the bar, she sat down at a table.” We all immediately know that it was Kamala who sat at the table, not Donald. Pronouns like “she” help us to understand language, but pronouns can have multiple meanings. Depending on the context, we understand who the pronoun is referring to. But how is it that we are so good at this, and how does our brain link pronouns with their nouns?

To answer this question, an international team of neuroscientists, neurosurgeons, and neurologists joined forces. Doris Dijksterhuis and Matthew Self from Pieter Roelfsema’s group looked together with their colleagues at the brain activity of patients with epilepsy. As part of their treatment, these patients were implanted with depth electrodes in their hippocampus, a brain area involved in learning and memory. The research team took advantage of this and conducted additional tests with them.

“We can measure the activity of individual brain cells in the hippocampus while the patient performs a task,” says Matthew Self. In the hippocampus, there are cells that respond to a specific person, so-called “concept cells.” A well-known example is the “Jennifer Aniston cell,” which becomes active when you see a photo of Jennifer Aniston, hear her name or read the words “Jennifer Aniston”. We wondered if these cells also become active when you only read a pronoun, like ‘he’ or ‘she’. Are these cells able to link the pronoun to the right person?

Shrek cell

Doris Dijksterhuis: “To test this, we first showed the patients many photos until we found a cell that responded to one particular image. For example, we found a cell that responded to an image of ‘Shrek’ but not to other images. We call this cell a ‘Shrek concept cell’. When patients later read a sentence like: “Shrek and Fiona were having dinner. He poured out some wine.” the ‘Shrek’ cell indeed responded to the word “Shrek”, but also to the pronoun ‘He.’ This is interesting because such a pronoun can mean something entirely different in another sentence. For example, in the sentence ‘Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were having dinner. He poured out some wine,’ the same pronoun, ‘He’, refers to Donald Trump, and therefore the Shrek cell will not react. Individual hippocampal cells track who the pronoun refers to in a dynamic, flexible way.”

Self: “We had the participants answer a question at the end of the sentences about who performed the action. We could predict whether the patients would give the correct answer based on the activity of the individual concept cells. To make it a bit more challenging, we also added some trick questions, with two people of the same gender: “Jennifer Aniston and Kamala Harris walked into a bar. She sat at the table.” The patient had to decide themselves who performed the action. We observed that patients tended to choose the person that evoked the most activity in the hippocampus at the start of the sentence. This could be based on chance fluctuations in activity on a trial-by-trial basis or an internal preference for one of the two characters in the sentence.”

The bigger picture

Dijksterhuis: “The hippocampus is important for learning and memory, but it remains unclear how the hippocampus is involved in the interaction between memory and language. How do we remember what we’ve read? When you think of something you’ve read, you have different concepts that together create the story. Pronouns help us to understand who did what in the story and cells in the hippocampus encode these actions into our memory. Ultimately, we want to know how an entire memory is formed and represented in the brain.”

“It is of great value that this group of patients has given their permission to participate in our research. We can only very rarely measure the activity of single brain cells in people who are reading and it is impossible to study these processes in animals. When we get the chance, we try to get as much out of it as possible.”

Source: Science

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Journal

Science

DOI

10.1126/science.adr2813 

Article Title

Pronouns reactivate conceptual representations in human hippocampal neurons

Article Publication Date

27-Sep-2024