Draft:Elliot Murphy

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  • Comment: I can't see any sign that he passes WP:NPROF or WP:GNG Have any of his books been reviewed in reliable, independent publications (e.g. newspapers and academic journals)? If so, please add these book reviews as references. Please also see WP:REFB for instructions on converting your references from bare URLs to full citations. MCE89 (talk) 07:55, 17 August 2025 (UTC)
  • Comment: I suggest you to see references for beginners for guidance on formatting citations. I fixed three already


Elliot Murphy
Murphy in Texas in 2024
Born
Liverpool, U.K.
EducationUniversity College London (MA, MSc, PhD)

Elliot Murphy (born 1991 in Liverpool) is an English author, neuroscientist, linguist, philosopher, literary critic, and political economist.[1][2] He is a researcher at the Vivian L. Smith Department of Neurosurgery, McGovern Medical School, University of Texas Health Science Center.[3] His research focuses on the neurobiology of language[4] using intracranial recordings, and compositionality in formal systems[5], neural systems[6][7][8], and artificial systems.[9] He is the author of Unmaking Merlin: Anarchist Tendencies in English Literature (2014)[10][11][12], Arms in Academia: The Political Economy of the Modern UK Defence Industry (2020)[13], and The Oscillatory Nature of Language (2020).[14][15]

Research

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Murphy completed his PhD in Linguistics at University College London in 2021, writing a thesis on polysemy and copredication.[16] He has developed a neurocomputational model of language termed ROSE (Representation, Operation, Structure, Encoding).[17] ROSE is a multi-scale neural architecture grounded in a neurobiologically plausible causal topology, mechanistic basis, and a set of oscillatory motifs that Murphy argues comply with known algebraic properties of language.[18] ROSE focuses on the development of a hybrid model for compositionality in minds and neural systems, leveraging the strengths of both symbolic and connectionist approaches, with an emphasis on oscillatory mechanisms like phase-amplitude coupling and spike-phase coupling. Murphy has argued that ROSE provides a scaffold for a 'Universal Neural Grammar', "a species-specific format for neurally organizing the construction of compositional syntactic structures, which matures in accordance with a genetically determined biological matrix".[19]

Schema of Universal Neural Grammar from Murphy's ROSE model

With neuroscientists Karl Friston and Emma Holmes, his work has explored connections between the free-energy principle and human language, arguing that certain formal design features of natural language syntax can be seen as complying with the demands of active inference.[20] He has written critiques of modern deep learning approaches to artificial intelligence with cognitive scientist Gary Marcus.[21][22][23] In interviews and in a debate with Steven Piantadosi[24], he has defended generative grammar approaches to human language and advocates for neurosymbolic solutions in AI research.[25]

Using intracranial recordings, Murphy has uncovered a cortical mosaic for hierarchical linguistic structure in posterior temporal cortex, whereby the ventral bank of the posterior superior temporal sulcus exhibits sensitivity to phrase structure and lexicality.[4][8] Murphy and colleagues have extended this cortical mosaic framework to a whole-brain analysis of semantic processing.[26][27]

He has published research and commentary articles on security, defense and humanitarian issues.[28][29][30]

References

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  1. ^ "Elliot Murphy – Google Scholar". Google Scholar. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  2. ^ "Elliot Murphy, PhD – Contributor". Psychology Today. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  3. ^ "Elliot Murphy – Profile". University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. Retrieved 17 August 2025.
  4. ^ a b Murphy, E.; Rollo, P. S.; Segaert, K.; Hagoort, P.; Tandon, N. (2024). "Multiple dimensions of syntactic structure are resolved earliest in posterior temporal cortex". Progress in Neurobiology. 241 102669. doi:10.1016/j.pneurobio.2024.102669. PMID 39332803.
  5. ^ Murphy, Elliot (2025). "The nature of language and the structure of reality". Biolinguistics at the Cutting Edge. pp. 207–236. doi:10.1515/9783111293776-008. ISBN 978-3-11-129377-6.
  6. ^ Sullivan, Heather (18 August 2021). "Texas man plays piano while undergoing brain tumor surgery". FOX News 26. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  7. ^ Barkley, Caitie (8 July 2023). "Brain's melody and prose: How music and language affect different regions". Neuroscience News. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  8. ^ a b Murphy, E.; Woolnough, O.; Rollo, P. S.; Roccaforte, Z. J.; Segaert, K.; Hagoort, P.; Tandon, N. (2022). "Minimal Phrase Composition Revealed by Intracranial Recordings". The Journal of Neuroscience : The Official Journal of the Society for Neuroscience. 42 (15): 3216–3227. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1575-21.2022. PMC 8994536. PMID 35232761.
  9. ^ Murphy, Elliot; Leivada, Evelina; Dentella, Vittoria; Gunther, Fritz; Marcus, Gary (2025). "Fundamental Principles of Linguistic Structure are Not Represented by o3". arXiv:2502.10934 [cs.CL].
  10. ^ Murphy, Elliot. "Unmaking Merlin: Anarchist Tendencies in English Literature".
  11. ^ Malleson, Thomas (27 March 2015). "Review of Unmaking Merlin: Anarchist Tendencies in English Literature". Ceasefire Magazine.
  12. ^ Bigger, Jonathan (2015). "Review of Unmaking Merlin: Anarchist Tendencies in English Literature". Anarchist Studies. 23 (2): 113–114.
  13. ^ "Arms in Academia: The Political Economy of the Modern UK Defence Industry".
  14. ^ Murphy, Elliot (2020). The Oscillatory Nature of Language. doi:10.1017/9781108864466. ISBN 978-1-108-86446-6.
  15. ^ Martorell, Jordi (2021). "Elliot Murphy, the oscillatory nature of language. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2020. Pp. Xiii + 321". Journal of Linguistics. 57 (2): 453–457. doi:10.1017/S0022226721000074. hdl:10810/51167.
  16. ^ Murphy, Elliot (2021). Linguistic Representation and Processing of Copredication (PhD thesis). University College London.
  17. ^ Murphy, Elliot (2024). "ROSE: A neurocomputational architecture for syntax". Journal of Neurolinguistics. 70 101180. doi:10.1016/j.jneuroling.2023.101180. PMC 10055479. PMID 36994166.
  18. ^ Marcolli, Matilde; Berwick, Robert C. (2025). "Encoding syntactic objects and Merge operations in function spaces". arXiv:2507.13501 [cs.CL]. {{cite arXiv}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |article-number= (help)
  19. ^ Murphy, Elliot (2025). "ROSE: A Universal Neural Grammar". Cognitive Neuroscience: 1–32. doi:10.1080/17588928.2025.2523875. PMID 40653898.
  20. ^ Murphy, Elliot; Holmes, Emma; Friston, Karl (2024). "Natural language syntax complies with the free-energy principle". Synthese. 203 (5) 154. doi:10.1007/s11229-024-04566-3. PMC 11068586. PMID 38706520.
  21. ^ "Three ideas from linguistics that everyone in AI should know". 22 June 2022.
  22. ^ Dentella, Vittoria; Günther, Fritz; Murphy, Elliot; Marcus, Gary; Leivada, Evelina (2024). "Testing AI on language comprehension tasks reveals insensitivity to underlying meaning". Scientific Reports. 14 (1) 28083. arXiv:2302.12313. Bibcode:2024NatSR..1428083D. doi:10.1038/s41598-024-79531-8. PMC 11564762. PMID 39543236.
  23. ^ Chafkin, Max (25 October 2022). "No, artists and designers aren't about to lose their jobs to AI". Bloomberg Businessweek. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  24. ^ "ActInf GuestStream 041.1 ~ "A conversation on Chomsky & Large Language Models" ~ Murphy & Piantadosi". YouTube. 26 April 2023. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  25. ^ "Machine Learning Street Talk (MLST), Elliot Murphy - Language, Knowledge, Semantics". Patreon. Retrieved 18 August 2025.
  26. ^ Murphy, Elliot; Forseth, Kiefer J.; Donos, Cristian; Snyder, Kathryn M.; Rollo, Patrick S.; Tandon, Nitin (2023-10-24). "The spatiotemporal dynamics of semantic integration in the human brain". Nature Communications. 14 (1): 6336. doi:10.1038/s41467-023-42087-8. ISSN 2041-1723. PMC 10598228. PMID 37875526.
  27. ^ Sanchez, Jeannette. "The Brain's Reading Riddle: Dual Brain Regions Unlock Language's Depths". Neuroscience News. Retrieved 22 August 2025. {{cite web}}: |archive-date= requires |archive-url= (help)
  28. ^ Murphy, Elliot (13 January 2016). "Made in Britain". London Review of Books Blog.
  29. ^ Murphy, Elliot (6 December 2019). "This UK General Election Is a Choice Between Imperialism and Internationalism". Jacobin.
  30. ^ Murphy, Elliot. "Arms in Academia: The Political Economy of the Modern UK Defence Industry". Routledge & CRC Press. Retrieved 2025-08-22.