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For years now, one strand of cognitive theory has argued that language and math are entwined in our brain’s circuitry. For example, some studies of brain activity have shown that when people were given sums to calculate, the left frontal lobe — an area generally related to verbal language — would light up. According to this theory, if you lost your ability to handle language, you’d also lose your mathematical ability.
But that may not be true, as some UK scientists have shown. They took a bunch of people with severe aphasia: They couldn’t speak or understand grammatical language. “Grammatical” is the big deal here; these people’s problems were not with understanding the meaning of individual words, but with understanding their correct order. They knew what “lion” and “man” and “hunted” meant individually, but wouldn’t be able to figure out the difference between the sentences “The lion hunted the man” and “The man hunted the lion”.
So the scientists gave these patients mathematical sums with different structures — such as “52 minus 11” and “11 minus 52” — they had no problem understanding that they were different expressions with different meanings. Apparently, mathematical grammar must rely on brain circuitry slightly different from that that parses verbal grammar. As Rosemary Varley, one of the scientists from the University of Sheffieldone, told the BBC:
“Despite profound language deficits these guys showed advanced cognitive abilities, which indicates considerable autonomy between language and thinking.”
I'm Clive Thompson, a writer on science, technology, and culture. This blog collects bits of offbeat research I'm running into, and musings thereon.
Currently, I'm a contributing writer for the New York Times Magazine and a columnist for Wired magazine. I also write for Fast Company and Wired magazine's web site, among other places. Email or AOL IM me (pomeranian99) to say hi or send in something strange!
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» visit the Collision Detection archives
September 26, 2008 » 01:57 PM
From an interview with ethnobotanist and anthropologist Wade Davis:
One of the cultures you celebrate in Light at the Edge of the World is the Inuit. What do you most admire about them?
Davis: The Inuit didn’t fear the cold; they took advantage of it. During the 1950s the Canadian government forced the Inuit into settlements. A family from Arctic Bay told me this fantastic story of their grandfather who refused to go. The family, fearful for his life, took away all of his tools and all of his implements, thinking that would force him into the settlement. But instead, he just slipped out of an igloo on a cold Arctic night, pulled down his caribou and sealskin trousers, and defecated into his hand. As the feces began to freeze, he shaped it into the form of an implement. And when the blade started to take shape, he put a spray of saliva along the leading edge to sharpen it. That’s when what they call the “shit knife” took form. He used it to butcher a dog. Skinned the dog with it. Improvised a sled with the dog’s rib cage, and then, using the skin, he harnessed up an adjacent living dog. He put the shit knife in his belt and disappeared into the night.
September 25, 2008 » 11:21 AM
“Video from a camp north of Toronto in December 2005 shows a car spinning around in a nearby, snow-covered parking lot. Prosecutors characterized that as special driver training but the defense, and many outsiders, said it was nothing more than “cutting doughnuts,” a favorite winter pastime of young Canadian motorists.” - A key piece of evidence submitted in the trial of a gang of alleged young Canadian terrorists.
September 24, 2008 » 11:21 PM
“Life imitates art imitating life: just thought a gnat crawling across my monitor was part of a Flash-based ad. I clicked it.” - A Tweet from Bill Braine.
September 24, 2008 » 02:37 PM
“Funniest FB friend request ever: “Twitter friend hoping to get to second base (Facebook!) ;-).”” - A recent Tweet by Pistachio
September 24, 2008 » 12:28 PM
Chinese powdered-milk crisis creates a new market: The return of the wet nurse
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