SPECIALIZATIONS OF THE HUMAN-BRAIN
SPECIALIZATIONS OF THE HUMAN-BRAIN
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DOI：
10.1038/scientificamerican0979-180
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发表时间：
1979-01-01
影响因子：
3
通讯作者：
GESCHWIND, N
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
GESCHWIND, N
所有动物的神经系统都有许多共同的基本功能，最显著的是控制运动和分析感觉。人类大脑的不同之处在于它能够学习各种更特殊的活动。最突出的例子是语言：没有人生来就知道一种语言，但实际上每个人都学会了说话和理解所说的话，所有文化的人都可以被教写和读。音乐在人类中也是普遍存在的：没有受过正规训练的人能够识别和再现几十种旋律。同样，几乎每个人都能画出简单的图形，能做出精确效果图的人也不在少数。人类大脑的这些高级功能中至少有一部分是由专门的神经元网络控制的。例如，100多年前人们就知道，大脑皮层中至少有两个区域是语言能力所埃森的;它们似乎是为处理言语信息而明确组织的。颞叶下面的内表面上的某些结构，包括海马体，显然是记忆长期保持所必需的。在某些情况下，神经系统的功能特化似乎是非常狭窄的：因此，人类大脑皮层两侧的一个区域主要与面孔识别有关。很可能其他的心理活动也与特定的神经网络有关。例如，音乐和艺术能力似乎取决于大脑中的专门系统，尽管其电路尚未被研究出来。人类大脑的另一个显著特征是将功能分配给两个大脑半球。人类大脑的功能并不完全对称，这至少可以从一个日常经验的观察中推测出来：大多数人喜欢右手，这是由左脑控制的。语言能力也主要存在于
The nervous systems of all animals have a number of basic functions in common, most notably the con trol of movement and the analysis of sensation. What distinguishes the hu man brain is the variety of more special ized activities it is capable of learning. The preeminent example is language: no one is born knowing a language, but vir tually everyone learns to speak and to understand the spoken word, and people of all cultures can be taught to write and to read. Music is also universal in man: people with no formal training are able to recognize and to reproduce dozens of melodies. Similarly, almost everyone can draw simple figures, and the ability to make accurate renderings is not rare. At least some of these higher func tions of the human brain are governed by dedicated networks of neurons. It has been known for more than 100 years, for example, that at least two delimited regions of the cerebral cortex are essen tial to linguistic competence; they seem to be organized explicitly for the proc essing of verbal information. Certain structures on the inner surface of the underside of the temporal lobe, includ ing the hippocampus, are apparently necessary for the long-term retention of memories. In some cases the functional specialization of a neural system seems to be quite narrowly defined: hence one area on both sides of the human cerebral cortex is concerned primarily with the recognition of faces. It is likely that oth er mental activities are also associated with particular neural networks. Musi cal and artistic abilities, for example, appear to depend on specialized systems in the brain, although the circuitry has not yet been worked out. Another distinctive characteristic of the human brain is the allocation of functions to the two cerebral hemi spheres. That the human brain is not ful ly symmetrical in its functioning could be guessed from at least one observation of daily experience: most of the human population favors the right hand, which is controlled by the left side of the brain. Linguistic abilities also reside mainly on