Arguments over what New York’s neighborhoods are called, where they start and end, and who has the right to say so are as old as the city itself. But the battles lately have become much more sophisticated. In this article in Crain’s, writer Joe Anuta reports on the conflict over what to call a section of Harlem, a delicate balancing act between the desires of developers and the need to respect the history of Harlem. This situation is also representative of naming issue in New York City in miniature.

On April 13th 2017, a special lecture addressing the effects of neurological damage on the naming of actions and objects was given by Dr. Bonnie Breining at Johns Hopkins University.  The lecture is a part of the C-Star Lecture Series offered by the Center for the Study of Aphasia Recovery. You can view a recording of the lecture here (or on the C-Star YouTube channel).

Deficits in Action and Object Naming: Evidence from Acute Stroke and Primary Progressive Aphasia

Neurological damage can result in selective deficits of naming for both objects and actions. However, assessment of individuals with aphasia often focuses on object naming, making it insensitive for detecting certain language deficits and patterns of recovery or worsening, as well as providing an incomplete view of the neural regions involved in naming. Furthermore, although dissociations have been observed both following stroke and as a result of neurodegenerative conditions such as primary progressive aphasia (PPA), results from the different etiologies are seldom compared directly.

In this talk, I discuss recent work investigating the neural substrates of object and action naming. Individuals with PPA and acute stroke were given the same assessments: the Boston Naming Test to evaluate object naming and the Hopkins Action Naming Assessment to evaluate action naming. We compare the patterns of impairment and the association between behavioral performance and damage to neural regions of interest in these individuals in order to develop a more comprehensive picture of the brain-behavior relationships critical for naming.

One of the most exciting and daunting tasks facing parents-to-be is selecting a name for their newborn.  In an effort to help parents out, the Society for the German Language or Gesellschaft für deutsche Sprache e.V. is offering a special course on baby naming in Germany.  The course covers several important topics including the newest naming trends in Germany, German naming laws, and international databanks for first names.  For information in German on how to sign-up and the dates for the next course being offered, click here.

A British scientist recently announced the discovery of a new hot pink crustacean.  In honour of the sea creature’s flaming colour, the University of Oxford researcher, Sammy De Grave, decided to name his discovery after his favorite rock band, Pink Floyd.  The species is now officially named “Synalpheus pinkfloydi”. The dashing sea animal kills its prey by creating a deadly blast of sound with its over-sized claws.

Animals feature frequently in the Floyd back-catalogue. Indeed, the 1977 album Animals includes tracks titled Dogs, Sheep, and a suite of music dedicated to pigs. Then there’s Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave and Grooving with a Pict from 1969’s Ummagumma. In fact, other biologists have already named a damselfly after that album: Umma gumma, in the family Calopterygidae. However, until today there have been no crustacean names known to honour the band.

In this in-depth piece at The Coral Project, writer J. Nathan Matias looks at the controversy surrounding the use of real names online. “People often say that online behavior would improve if every comment system forced people to use their real names. It sounds like it should be true – surely nobody would say mean things if they faced consequences for their actions? Yet the balance of experimental evidence over the past thirty years suggests that this is not the case. Not only would removing anonymity fail to consistently improve online community behavior – forcing real names in online communities could also increase discrimination and worsen harassment.” Read on to learn more about anonymity, harassment, and how names play into the dynamic.

The University of Melbourne’s Richard Berry building has been renamed to the Peter Hall building in an effort to create a more inclusive campus environment. The move comes after a long anti-racism campaign by a group of staff and students. Berry lobbied for “sterilization, segregation and the lethal chamber” for Aboriginal people, as well as homosexuals, poor people, and prostitutes.

The building has been the home of mathematics and statistics for several decades and was the building in which Professor Hall produced much of his highly influential work in non-parametric statistics. Professor Hall was regarded as a giant in his field for his many outstanding and innovative contributions to statistics and probability theory. His work included a number of classic monographs in addition to over 500 research papers.

“The Berry Building was renamed in response to the death in 2016 of Peter Hall, a prolific and world-renowned mathematician and statistician,” said spokesman David Scott in a statement to the BBC. “While the building had previously housed the Department of Anatomy, it has been home to the School of Mathematics and Statistics for a number of years, the School where Professor Hall completed his internationally-recognized work. Therefore it was appropriate to name the building to reflect its current usage.”