8/10/2019 Poets vs. Critics, Different Brain Systems

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Poets vs. Critics: Different Brain SystemsSo! Poets and their interpreters use different brain systems.Published on November 24 2 " by Norman N. #olland Ph.D. in $his %s &our Brain on Culture

&ears a'o (hen % (as teachin' in the le'endary )n'lish Department at S*N&+Buffalo one of our poets,erry -c uire convo/ed a 'roup to read poems. ,erry0s idea (as to brin' poets and critics to'ether inorder to compare their readin's.

1hat happened surprised me at least and % thin/ ust about everybody in the 'roup. %t turned out thatpoets and critics read poems 3uite differently.

$he critics concerned themselves (ith thin's li/e repetitions and contrasts of themes and meanin's. $hepoets ho(ever paid attention to repetitions and contrasts of vo(els and consonants rhythmic patternsand all /inds of features of the sound of the poems. $o be sure there (as a certain amount of overlap butnevertheless the poets and the critics (ere readin' poems 3uite differently.

No( it turns out they may have been usin' different systems in their brains. enneth #eilman aneuropsycholo'ist at the *niversity of 5lorida has a fine paper settin' out the 6information7processin'approach6 to the various aphasias. #e lists eleven different aphasias and his paper uses the /ind of bloc/dia'rams computer pro'rammers use to distin'uish and interrelate them.

#eilman mentions ei'ht interconnected bloc/s some referrin' to (ell7/no(n and clearlydefined brain re'ions and systems others to 'eo'raphy less certain. #e mentions obviously the auditory

corte8 9#eschl0s 'yrus that someho(77no one /no(s ho(77brea/s the incomin' sounds into phonemes.$hen there is a 6phonolo'ical input le8icon 6 correspondin' to 1ernic/e0s area that 6remembers6 thesounds of various (ords. $here is a motor system that ma/es the sounds of speech and 6phonetic7speechmovement pro'rams 6 Broca0s area. %t embodies the pro'rams for formin' various (ords and othersounds. Both these systems rely on a 6phonolo'ical output le8icon6 that remembers (hat those (ords andother sounds are supposed to sound li/e.

http://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/norman-n-holland-phdhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/is-your-brain-culturehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/neurosciencehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/neurosciencehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/experts/norman-n-holland-phdhttp://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/is-your-brain-culturehttp://www.psychologytoday.com/basics/neuroscience

8/10/2019 Poets vs. Critics, Different Brain Systems

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;t a still hi'her level of processin' the brain0s intentional systems 9anterior cin'ulate and frontal lobescreate (hat Steven Pin/er calls 6mentalese6 and stimulate speech production systems to turn those mentalthou'hts or proto7utterances into physical (ords and sentences.