hypothesis-four
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| - | **Hypothesis Four: Jaynes' | + | ==== HYPOTHESIS FOUR: THE NEUROLOGICAL MODEL FOR BICAMERAL MENTALITY ==== |
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| + | **Theoretical Claim** | ||
| Jaynes contended that the two-chambered mentality lateralized language so that what conscious people call volition took the form of hallucinatory “voices of the gods” (right hemisphere) who commanded the human “listener” (left hemisphere). So far a number of brain imaging studies have confirmed Jaynes’s arguments. | Jaynes contended that the two-chambered mentality lateralized language so that what conscious people call volition took the form of hallucinatory “voices of the gods” (right hemisphere) who commanded the human “listener” (left hemisphere). So far a number of brain imaging studies have confirmed Jaynes’s arguments. | ||
| - | **The Neurological Basics of Speech** | + | **Supporting Evidence** |
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| + | //The Neurological Basics of Speech// | ||
| Natural selection often ensures protective redundancy in its design of organisms so that most functions are bilaterally represented. But if the most crucial functions are bilaterally represented within our brains, why are our speech regions (located in the left hemisphere, the supplementary motor cortex; Broca’s area; and Wernicke’s area), that subserve an indispensable human ability, laterally dominant in the left cerebral hemisphere (this is for right-handed people; about 5%—lefties—have mixed or right-side dominance)? This is even more mysterious when one considers that corresponding structures for language do exist in the right hemisphere. Jaynes argued that they once had an important function in humankind’s past While presently right-sided neurological structures play some role in language, they are not dominant for most of us. | Natural selection often ensures protective redundancy in its design of organisms so that most functions are bilaterally represented. But if the most crucial functions are bilaterally represented within our brains, why are our speech regions (located in the left hemisphere, the supplementary motor cortex; Broca’s area; and Wernicke’s area), that subserve an indispensable human ability, laterally dominant in the left cerebral hemisphere (this is for right-handed people; about 5%—lefties—have mixed or right-side dominance)? This is even more mysterious when one considers that corresponding structures for language do exist in the right hemisphere. Jaynes argued that they once had an important function in humankind’s past While presently right-sided neurological structures play some role in language, they are not dominant for most of us. | ||
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| The central feature of both forms is that the “amalgamating of admonitory experience was a right hemisphere function and it was excitation in what corresponds to Wernicke' | The central feature of both forms is that the “amalgamating of admonitory experience was a right hemisphere function and it was excitation in what corresponds to Wernicke' | ||
| - | **Evidence Supporting Bicameral Neurology** | + | //Evidence Supporting Bicameral Neurology// |
| First, note that both hemispheres can understand language, though normally only the left can speak. Jaynes relied on the groundbreaking experiments of the neuroscientist M. S. Gazzaniga (1939‒), neurophysiologist J. E. Bogen (1926‒2005), | First, note that both hemispheres can understand language, though normally only the left can speak. Jaynes relied on the groundbreaking experiments of the neuroscientist M. S. Gazzaniga (1939‒), neurophysiologist J. E. Bogen (1926‒2005), | ||
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| The right hemisphere focuses on the guiding and planning of behavior in novel circumstances. Its prerogative is organizational, | The right hemisphere focuses on the guiding and planning of behavior in novel circumstances. Its prerogative is organizational, | ||
| - | Finally, neuroplasticity. The brain is much more capable of being configured by the environment than we once understood. This means that the human neurological system could have undergone dramatic changes—from bicamerality to consciousness—mostly on the basis of learning and culture. | + | Fourth, neuroplasticity. The brain is much more capable of being configured by the environment than we once understood. This means that the human neurological system could have undergone dramatic changes—from bicamerality to consciousness—mostly on the basis of learning and culture. The early developmental history of an individual can make a huge difference in how the brain is organized. Moreover, neuroplasticity gives an organism impressive adaptability in the face of relentlessly changing environmental challenges. |
| - | The early developmental history of an individual can make a huge difference in how the brain is organized. | + | |
| - | The selective advantages of redundant representation and the resulting plasticity protects the organism against the consequences of brain damage. Moreover, and significantly for a Jaynesian psychology, neuroplasticity gives an organism impressive adaptability in the face of relentlessly changing environmental challenges. | + | Finally, evidence from brain imaging studies over the past 40 years. (MK to add). |
| - | **" | + | //" |
| Jaynes never claimed that the brains of ancient peoples were in an anatomical sense substantially different from our own. In other words, the “hardware” is the same, but the “software” (sociolinguistic environment) is not, and this difference led to the cultural invention of an introspectable subjective space in which a self dwells. | Jaynes never claimed that the brains of ancient peoples were in an anatomical sense substantially different from our own. In other words, the “hardware” is the same, but the “software” (sociolinguistic environment) is not, and this difference led to the cultural invention of an introspectable subjective space in which a self dwells. | ||
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| + | See also: [[https:// | ||
hypothesis-four.1712274149.txt.gz · Last modified: 2024/04/04 18:42 by brian.m