From last week's Science Friday
You can probably recognize your friend's voice over the phone with just one "hello" -- but how? Several studies published in the June issue of the journal Nature Neuroscience try to tackle what we do and don't know about the sense of hearing. In this segment, we'll talk about what's going on inside your brain as it attempts to decode the spoken word.
Listen to the broadcast here. (It's on the top left of the page)
60 Second Science from Scientific American
A brief podcast from Scientific American on how we listen to people speak. A transcript exists on the original article page, but I recommend you play the file from here for the full listening effect (for me, it's much too tempting to read along, defeating the purpose of the podcast).
Link to original article
If it isn't working for you here on the blog, I guess you'll have to settle for the above link.
Quick thought:
Almost all studies of the sort show that more than 95% of right-handed people house their language center in the left hemisphere of the brain (the more logical side of the brain), where less than 5% have right hemisphere language centers (the more creative side).
Oddly, in left-handed people, over 70% still have left hemisphere language centers. Leaving about 30% of left-handed people with their "language part of the brain" on the more creative side - but not the majority of left-handed people still.
It would be interesting (if it were possible) to see how much this affects how this affects the content (or even style) of those who have language centers on the logical side of the brain to those who have it on the creative side.
Of course, the brain is a network. But the reason we are right or left handed in the first place is mostly determined by whether we use the right or left brain more abundantly. Many of the greatest artists in history (Da Vinci, etc.) were left-handed. How would this hold up with poets? With lawyers? With linguists?
Unfortunately, they usually cannot check which hemisphere the language center resides in until a person is dead or some other severe case. But it's interesting (to me) nonetheless. Why are so many right-handed people left hemisphere language people, and why are the majority of left-handed people also left-hemisphere language people - thought not quite as much?
