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From: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry W. Kort)
Newsgroups: comp.ai
Subject: Re: Some questions regarding lateral specialization
Summary: Shuttling through the corpus callosum.
Keywords: Fourier Transforms, Analytical Geometry, Musical Notation
Message-ID: <44068@linus.UUCP>
Date: 28 Jan 89 22:54:05 GMT
References: <1566@tank.uchicago.edu>
Sender: news@linus.UUCP
Reply-To: bwk@mbunix.mitre.org (Barry Kort)
Organization: IdeaSync, Inc., Chronos, VT
Lines: 47

In article <1566@tank.uchicago.edu> staff_bob@gsbacd.uchicago.edu writes:

 > I have never claimed that there is any evidence that the
 > right brain is somehow more "mystical" than the right. I do however
 > believe that the possibility is worth investigating, in the sense that
 > if the two halves of the brain are in fact different, whether or not
 > the difference is innate, then one would expect that one hemisphere
 > would have problems "understanding" the other. Then "Mysticism" reduces
 > to the inability of the left hemisphere to understand the right in its
 > own terms.

 > We do have evidence that the right hemisphere (in right handed individuals)
 > is more spatially sophisticated, holistically oriented, musically 
 > inclined and better at recognizing visual images than the left. The left,
 > (literally) on the other hand, is more symbolic and analytical.

In my experience, it is damn hard to devise a translation between
left and right hemispheric representations of the same information.
It was not obvious to me that conic sections were representable as
quadratic equations.  And all of analytical geometry turned out to
be a great boon.  Still, when I catch a frisbee, I do not calculate
trajectories with my left hemisphere.  But please don't ask me how
I catch the frisbee.  My right hemisphere refuses to divulge its
methods.

Similarly, I labor to translate time domain signals into the frequency
domain with Fourier transforms.  But somehow my right hemisphere
effortlessly recognizes notes and tunes from time-domain playbacks
of my records and tapes.  And I cannot look at the grooves on the
record and recognize the music (although some people have reportedly
learned to do so).  Worse yet, I can't read music.  Show me the
sheet music to a common tune and I just shrug my shoulders.

My television paints a picture by raster scanning, much like the
way I read pages in a book.  But my visual system just sees the
TV image "all at once," and I'll be damned if I can tell you how that
works.  I certainly couldn't teach scene recgonition to anyone
(and especially not to a computer).

So I agree that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is
doing (most of the time), and even if it does, it doesn't know
how the other half figures it out.  One thing I do know.  For
those few cases where I can readily translate back and forth
between left and right hemispheric representation of the same
information, I can make a comfortable living.

--Barry Kort