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Re: speech/music



Pierre Divenyi wrote:
>
>Well, reading Neil's note could make the mortal think that his cotton-dry
>all-black-or-white conclusions are 100% supported by studies in aphasics.
>However, not even Geschwind (who was able to put forward a brilliant
>theoretical account of **any** particular patient's linguistic deficits,
>tying them to a unique lesion pattern -- how sad that he is no longer
>arond!) would have supported the simplistic structuralist model of
>processing stages Neil appears to be pushing. Maybe his chapter is more
>nuanced than the summary...
>

>Contemporary behavioral neurologists and clinical neuroanatomists
>increasingly guard against giving undue emphasis to lesions, for the simple
>reason that, even if a stroke- or trauma- or tumor-based lesion can be
>absolutely circumscribed, its secondary and tertiary effects remain
>basically unknown. The future seems to lie in fMRI studies; the few speech
>results I have seen/heard of so far (mind you, there are enormous technical
>problems associated with auditory fMRI experiments!) tell us stories
>markedly different from what Neil implies: There is activity at cortical
>sites often far away from the areas classically identified as speech and
>language processors.  PET studies, although deprived from the time locking
>feature of fMRI, convey essentially the same message.
>

If you read the chapter, you will see that your characterisation of my position
is way off the mark. I certainly have not ignored stimulation or blood flow
 studies.
E.g. Calvert et al (1997) Activation of auditory cortex during silent
lipreading. Science, 276, 593-596. which I cited above. Further, it is certainly
 not
the case that I have adopted a naive stageist view or that I have ignored
 non-classical
speech areas. Indeed, I have argued that we need to consider the both basal
 ganglia and
cerebellum which are known to be involved in speech timing.

This all goes to show that it's a big mistake to put edited extracts on the list
 which
inevitably will be read out of context.

Neil