Comments on: Hemispheres of influence

By: coal_train

coal_train — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:03:48 +0000

In biology there is not always a good answer to why something is the way it is, aside from, “because our ancestors were that way and at some point it offered a competitive advantage.” It is like asking why we are bilaterally symmetrical. It offered some evolutionary advantage in the distant past, and these relics constrain our development because the cost of being rid of them is too high. As the article discusses, our ancestors had that kind of brain, so we do too. It became part of our embryological development and we are stuck that way. The small asymmetries that have evolved in our brains must have helped us survive as a species, but offspring tend to not survive the kind of mutations necessary to evolve a totally different brain plan. There may be brain designs that are more efficient than our two-sided brain, but we can’t get there from here. Evolution does not always result in the most efficient or elegant design. Perhaps we survive despite our two-sided brain, not because of it.

By: afurth

afurth — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:50:05 +0000

I find the work of Daniel Pink in this area particularly illuminating. His book A Whole New Mind is fascinating.
I recently wrote a blog post on the book’s implications for the current global economic crisis:
http://alanfurth.com/a-whole-new-mind-for-finance

By: afurth

afurth — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 17:48:54 +0000

Interesting post. I do find the right-left hemisphere distinction useful, even if I agree that pop culture tends to oversimplify its meaning.
I find the work of Daniel Pink in this area particularly illuminating. His book A Whole New Mind is fascinating.
I recently wrote a blog post on the book’s implications for the current global economic crisis:
http://alanfurth.com/a-whole-new-mind-for-finance

By: Vaughan

Vaughan — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:25:33 +0000

There is no one reference because it’s a huge area. However, picking out sounds that form words is classically associated with Wernicke’s area, and working out syntax is classically associated with Broca’s area, and a search for either one should turn up plenty of things.
The right hemisphere is more sensitive to prosody and a search for neuropsychology of prosody should do the trick.
Most good general neuropsych books should have plenty on this.
My favourites are Human Neuropsychology (ISBN 0131974521) and Fundamentals of Human Neuropsychology (ISBN 0716795868).

By: yaxu

yaxu — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 15:18:40 +0000

I find this particularly interesting: “The left hemisphere specializes in picking out the sounds that form words and working out the syntax of the words, for example, but it does not have a monopoly on language processing. The right hemisphere is actually more sensitive to the emotional features of language, tuning in to the slow rhythms of speech that carry intonation and stress.”
Could anyone recommend a reference to follow for this?