The book Patterns in the Mind by Ray Jackendoff approaches the question of how language works. Language is perhaps the most unique aspect of humanity, as we are the only creatures to have the capacity for this type of communication. The book explores this facility of language, and what goes into the process of learning and becoming fluent in a language. The book questions what is specifically human about the ability to create and use language, and to what extent language is a result of nature versus nurture Jackendoff is very careful to differentiate between language and communication in this book: while many animals communicate, only humans have the complex grammar systems that constitute language.

I’ve always been one to judge a book by it’s cover; not necessarily to the exclusion of picking up a tomb for casual reading, but I must admit that there’s nothing quite like a pretty picture to make me want to thumb the first few pages. Such was the case, I’m ashamed to admit, which led to my perusal of Melvin Konner’s recently revised The Tangled Wing: Biological Constraints on the Human Spirit (Henry Holt, NY). The yellow cover depicts da Vinci’s “Vertuvian Man” superimposed with an extended wing, an image which is also used to break up the text into sections, and at the very top a photograph of a human, male back.

Neurobiology & Behavior

Book Commentary

 

 

Do Neurological Differences between Women and Men Exist?

 

 

Imagine that you have been working extra hours and one night you come home late to find that your dog has chewed up your favorite pair of shoes. You might tell yourself that he is upset at you for not being there and thus took revenge by purposely ruining your things. It is not uncommon for people to ascribe emotions and motivations to their pets; we are so used to being aware and self-conscious that it seems natural to assume pets think the same way we do (6). However, this is probably a gross misestimation of your dog’s mental processes.

A few weeks ago I was doing a project on maternal separation anxiety for another course when I came upon a very interesting article that outlined a study conducted with premature infants in neonatal intensive care units (NICU) and their mothers. All mothers participated in kangaroo care, an intervention program for hospital bound infants where mothers and infants have skin-to-skin contact, whereas only half listened to soothing music concurrently. Those mother-infant dyads listening to music reaped great benefits: the mothers’ separation anxiety when leaving her child, as well as general trait anxiety, decreased while the infants had more quiet sleep and cried less (1). Music seemed to help sooth both the mother and child during a very anxious time.

            The book Born on a Blue Day, by Daniel Tammet is the autobiography of a man afflicted with Asperger’s syndrome, an autistic spectrum disorder.  Daniel Tammet is best known for his savant abilities in the field of mathematics.   His most famous feat was his memorization of pi to more than 22,000 digits.  One of the main factors allowing Daniel Tammet amazing mathematical skills is his ability to synesthetically “see” numbers and to visualize mathematical equations in ways that the majority of the population can only imagine.