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From: dsn@umcp-cs.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Newsgroups: net.singles
Subject: Re: Interesting article
Message-ID: <90@umcp-cs.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 5-Mar-86 12:24:09 EST
Article-I.D.: umcp-cs.90
Posted: Wed Mar  5 12:24:09 1986
Date-Received: Fri, 7-Mar-86 08:31:17 EST
References: <489@ssc-bee.UUCP> <162@gsg.UUCP> <632@nbires.UUCP> <645@hounx.UUCP>
Reply-To: dsn@maryland.UUCP (Dana S. Nau)
Organization: U of Maryland, Computer Science Dept., College Park, MD
Lines: 29

In article <645@hounx.UUCP> kort@hounx.UUCP writes:
>...  I have met two dyslexic adults who are weak in language
>skills, but incredibly quick to pick up body language cues. ...

A few weeks ago I heard a radio interview with the neurologist Oliver Sacks.
I may have a few details garbled, but this is roughly what he said:

He has a number of patients who are aphasics (i.e., neurologically unable to
understand language).  In compensation for this, many of them have developed
an uncanny ability to interpret body language, tone of voice, etc.  He also
said he had a patient who had the opposite kind of problem:  due to a brain
tumor, she had lost the ability to interpret body language or tone of voice.
However (partly because of her training as a poet, and partly in
compensation for this malady), she had developed an ability to infer
people's feelings by looking at the particular words people use to say
things.

Anyway, it seems that a few months ago when Reagan gave a televised speech
on Nicaragua, Sacks came into his hospital ward and noticed that the
aphasics were quite agitated.  Some were laughing, some looked very
distressed, etc.  In addition, the woman who had the opposite problem also
had a strange expression on her face.  He went over to her and asked her
what was wrong--and she replied that either Reagan was brain-damaged or he
had something to hide, because he had used the wrong words to say what he
meant.
-- 

Dana S. Nau,  Comp. Sci. Dept.,  U. of Maryland,  College Park,  MD 20742
dsn@maryland		seismo!umcp-cs!dsn		(301) 454-7932