Full Idea
Before language is present, concepts depend on the brain's ability to construct 'universals' through higher-order mapping of the activity of the brain's own perceptual and motor maps.
Gist of Idea
Prior to language, concepts are universals created by self-mapping of brain activity
Source
G Edelman / G Tononi (Consciousness: matter becomes imagination [2000], Ch.15)
Book Reference
Edelman,G/Tononi,G: 'Consciousness: how matter becomes imagination' [Penguin 2000], p.196
A Reaction
It should be of great interest to philosophers that one can begin to give a neuro-physiological account of universals. A physical system can be ordered as a database, and universals are the higher branches of a tree-structure of information.