Pat, Rich, and Steven, (01)
Those are indeed fascinating anecdotes that make the abstract
discussions about connections in the brain more concrete and vivid.
It's especially poignant to hear the stories from someone we've
known and loved (and sometimes get into fights with) over the years. (02)
PH
> She ... told me draw a sketch map of the route to our home, about
> 5 miles away. It was a surprisingly difficult task, and my final map,
> which I know was inadequate but was powerless to improve, showed
> a diagrammatic equivalent of Wernicke's aphasia: it had well formed
> pieces but they were not connected into a coherent whole. It was
> this experience, in fact, which started my interest in thinking
> of maps as a symbolic language rather than simply a kind of pictorial
> summary of a terrain. (03)
The parietal lobes, which are immediately above Wernicke's area, are
considered the region for storing and processing patterns that are
called frames, schemata, or cognitive maps. (04)
Slide 36 of http://www.jfsowa.com/talks/goal.pdf has a diagram by
Peter MacNeilage about the information flow during the production
of speech. It shows how the *inferior parietal cortex* which is
adjacent to Wernicke's area is central to that flow. (05)
Slide 37 has a diagram of connections by the linguist Sydney Lamb,
who spent half a century collaborating with neuroscientists.
Lamb (and many others) believe that what we call "concepts" can be
correlated with nodes in the parietal lobes. Note the plural '-s'
-- the corpus callosum has direct connections from each area in
each hemisphere to its mirror image in the other. (06)
Those nodes have much richer and more complex connections to both
hemispheres than those shown in slide 37. When Gabby Giffords
got a bullet through her left hemisphere, the connections in
her right hemisphere were sufficiently rich to compensate to
a very large extent. (07)
Antonio Damasio, who wrote an impressive book on consciousness,
said the following (quoted in slide 40): (08)
AD
> The distinctive feature of brains such as the one we own is their
> uncanny ability to create maps... But when brains make maps, they
> are also creating images, the main currency of our minds. Ultimately
> consciousness allows us to experience maps as images, to
> manipulate those images, and to apply reasoning to them. (09)
Note that Damasio calls maps the "main currency of our minds." (010)
PH
> I believe that, for me at least, listening to music uses many
> of the same brain areas. (011)
There's a huge literature on the psychology and neuroscience involved
in music. The following book summarizes the developments up to 2006: (012)
Mithen, Steven (2006) The Singing Neanderthals: The Origin of Music,
Language, Mind, and Body, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA. (013)
Mithen claimed that the Neanderthals had music, but not language.
That idea was dubious in 2006, and evidence since then suggests that
they had some kind of language. But he has intriguing examples: (014)
Mithen, p. 33
> In 1953, at the age of 51, [the Russian composer] Shebalin suffered
> a mild stroke in his left temporal lobe, which impaired his right
> hand, the right side of his face, and disturbed his speech. Shebalin
> recovered from these symptoms within a few weeks... Then on 9 Oct 1959,
> Shebalin suffered a second and more severe stroke... After experiencing
> two epileptic fits, he died from a third stroke on 29 May 1963. (015)
During that period from 1959 to 1963, Shebalin exhibited symptoms of
Wernicke's aphasia, which made it very difficult for him to understand
and speak his native Russian. Following is a sample Shebalin's
speech, as quoted by the neurologist Alexander Luria: (016)
S quoted by AL quoted by M:
> The words... do I really hear them? But I am sure... not so clear...
> I can't grasp them... Sometimes - yes... But I can't grasp the
> meaning. I don't know what it is. (017)
But amazingly, Shebalin continued to compose music and to teach music
at the Moscow conservatory. He published 11 major works between 1959
and 1963. A few months before his death he completed his fifth
symphony. Dmitri Shostakovich described it as "a brilliant creative
work, filled with the highest emotions, optimistic and full of life." (018)
RC
> I met a PhD Mathematician and another PhD Physicist, both of whom
> claimed to NOT have a visual memory in which to sketch their thoughts. (019)
Bertrand Russell also said that he couldn't imagine thought without
language. But Whitehead, who I believe was a much better mathematician,
said that when he was writing in English he had the feeling that he was
translating from a foreign language. (020)
SEZ
> despite western governments, including the Obama administration,
> apparent enthusiasm for the subject, "mapping the brain" tells us
> nothing much of consequence (021)
The research summarized above was based on mapping dead brains by
dissecting and mapping live brains by scanning. Those results are
essential for both diagnosis and treatment. Without them, surgeons
would still be doing lobotomies. (022)
See the web site for the Human Connectome Project: (023)
http://www.humanconnectomeproject.org/ (024)
One of their goals is to diagnose Alzheimer's disease prior to doing
an autopsy. If they can detect it, they can compare the effectiveness
of different drugs and therapy. (025)
John (026)
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