I did search on "mirror neurons" and BIRN returned null result!
Thanks.
Ravi (01)
On Tue, Jan 19, 2010 at 6:01 PM, John F. Sowa <sowa@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> Pat,
>
> Thanks for the pointers to the work in biology and neuroscience.
>
> PC> Check out the BIRN ontology effort:
> >
> > http://nbirn.net/research/ontology/index.shtm
>
> This work is useful, but I'd like to point out that it is being
> used as *terminology*, not as formal ontology. That distinction
> is important because many of the claims for the value of ontology
> really consist of renaming the much older field of *terminology*
>
> The terminologists have proved the value of their work for over
> a century in every branch of science. They are also essential
> for translation in multilingual organizations such as the UN,
> the Canadian Parliament, and the European Union.
>
> When the terminologies are enhanced with OWL, they have very
> few axioms beyond a type hierarchy and a few simple attributes.
> They are mainly an aid to consensus in human use and information
> retrieval rather than detailed reasoning.
>
> I have no objections to such usage. But I would emphasize that
> it does not justify claims that the growth of ontologies shows
> that they are using detailed axiomatizations and reasoning.
>
> Following are some quotations from their web sites.
>
> John
> _________________________________________________________________
>
> From https://xwiki.nbirn.org:8443/xwiki/bin/view/+BIRN-OTF-Public/Home
>
>> A controlled terminology is a fundamental requirement for assuring the
> > inter-operability of the unique and diverse knowledge sources that
> make up
> > BIRN's shared environment. In order to enhance collaboration across
> BIRN's
> > open, fluid, and diverse infrastructure, we have adopted structured
> procedures
> > to support enhanced interoperability...
>
> Note their list of sources, which include the less formal terminologies:
>
> > BIRN knowledge sources originally included the UMLS, Gene Ontology
> > (GO), Logical Observations Identifiers Names and Codes (LOINC),
> > Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Ontology (SNOMED), and
> > NeuroNames. Mapping between these sources is provided by UMLS.
>
> Later in that site:
>
> > NeuroLex also includes detailed concepts for describing experimental
> > techniques and instruments typically employed to carry out
> > neuroscientific studies, as well as concepts for describing digital
> > resources being created throughout the neuroscience community.
>
> Again, I'll admit that's probably useful, but I seriously doubt that
> anyone has axiomatized their experimental techniques and instruments.
>
> > ... the Neuroscience Information Framework is working with
> > neuroscientists and others who have created terminology resources
> > for neuroscience to incorporate them into the NIF.
>
> From http://nbirn.net/research/ontology/ontology_neuronames.shtm
>
> > NeuroNames, the nomenclature component of the software called
> > BrainInfo, is not really an ontology. It is a collection of about
> > 15000 terms, 2000 of which are acronyms. It allows a complete
> > description of the primate brain in terms of about 900 structures
> > (approximately 580 primary volumetric structures, 130 superstructures
> > and 180 superficial structures). These terms form a hierarchy defined
> > by a “volumetric substructure” relationship. Each term denoting a
> > volumetric structure is also related to a set of terms that denote
> > the “superficial features” of the structure. Although not a part of
> > NeuroNames per se, each term has an implicit mapping to a primate
> > brain atlas region—however, it is unclear that this mapping from
> > the term to coordinates can be automatically recovered at this time.
>
>
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> (02)
--
Thanks.
Ravi
(Dr. Ravi Sharma)
313 204 1740 Mobile (03)
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