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Article 2277 of comp.ai.philosophy:
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>From: geb@dsl.pitt.edu (gordon e. banks)
Newsgroups: comp.ai.philosophy
Subject: Re: Scaled up slug brains
Message-ID: <12790@pitt.UUCP>
Date: 19 Dec 91 15:43:16 GMT
References: <45090@mimsy.umd.edu> <12781@pitt.UUCP> <45115@mimsy.umd.edu>
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Organization: Decision Systems Laboratory, Univ. of Pittsburgh, PA.
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In article <45115@mimsy.umd.edu> harwood@umiacs.umd.edu (David Harwood) writes:

>the neuro-linguistic activity occupies 80% of the left hemisphere,
>not localized regions only (although these are necessary, I agree).
>But the hemispheres are densely connected in normal brains, however
>the right hemisphere only shows some lesser word-meaning related
>activity -there is other evidence for this too. (A speculation might

The hemispheres are much less densely interconnected (with the opposite
hemisphere) than intraconnected (within the same hemisphere).  What
I am trying to point out to you is that the fact that a linguistic
cognitive task activates 80% of the Left hemisphere does not mean
that all that 80% is vital and necessary to linguistic processing.
What you don't seem to understand is that *any* cognitive task will
activate large parts of the brain because the brain is densely
connected.  Other parts of the brain need to know what is going
on everywhere.  It isn't *just* language, and it isn't *just* human
brains that demonstrate this.  Large parts of the left hemisphere
are devoted primarily to interpretation of the right visual field,
(occipital lobe), to motor activity of the right side of the body,
to primary and interpretive sensation of the right side of the body,
(fronto-parietal regions), and to performance of automatic movements.
Large sections of the temporal lobe are devoted to memory, both
visual and linguistic.  Large sections of the frontal lobe are
devoted to attention and planning activity.  Your claim that
80% of the left hemisphere is primarily devoted to language
is quite naive in my view and probably arises from a misinterpretation
of data provided by your experts.  It is you who should call them
and have them set you straight.  They'd be hysterical with laughter
if they could read the blather you are putting out and attributing
to them.  Just make sure you ask the right
questions (i.e. don't ask "Do verbal tasks activate 80% of the left
hemisphere", everyone agrees about that).  




-- 
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Gordon Banks  N3JXP      | "I have given you an argument; I am not obliged
geb@cadre.dsl.pitt.edu   |  to supply you with an understanding." -S.Johnson
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