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My favorite part: "Koubeissi thinks that the results do indeed suggest that the claustrum plays a vital role in triggering conscious experience. "I would liken
by jjallen 12y ago
My favorite part:
"Koubeissi thinks that the results do indeed suggest that the claustrum plays a vital role in triggering conscious experience. "I would liken it to a car," he says. "A car on the road has many parts that facilitate its movement – the gas, the transmission, the engine – but there's only one spot where you turn the key and it all switches on and works together. So while consciousness is a complicated process created via many structures and networks – we may have found the key."
- evincarofautumn 12y ago“We may have found the key” is a short phrase containing only Germanic origin words, so it sounds “strong”; and occurring last, giving you serial position bias.
- lifeisstillgood 12y agoI don't know why that got downvoted - fascinating to see there is a degree if theory behind why some phrases and speeches come over bette than others. Thank you
- jjallen 12y agoEvin* stated that Germanic words sound strong and that is why I preferred this excerpt. Do you have something to back that up? You don't know me at all, so in my opinion this statement is more speculative than the n=1 stumbled-upon-discovery being discussed. I actually didn't focus much on the end of this excerpt. And I should have added the following in my original comment - I actually honed in on this part: "but there's only one spot where you turn the key and it all switches on and works together" Immediately after I read this, I actually imagined the key turning off, and the car shutting down. This is precisely what the author/surgeon stated happened during the surgery. Also, I was too going to point out that 'clé' comes from French too. Maybe an etymology dictionary says it comes from Old English, but English is of course partially derived from Old French as well as Norse/Germanic languages [1]. Saying that I liked a metaphor because it contains Germanic words (like much of the English language) that occurred last is a nice theory. But what if I preferred softer sounding words for some other reason and had a bias against Germanic words - say because I studied French in school, lived in France or had grandparents that died horrifically during WWII. I didn't downvote FYI. But another theory as to why I liked it is because that passage instantly helped me to understand what the author believes the incredibly complex system the brain is like by using a simple rhetorical device called a metaphor. On the important subject of whether or not consciousness is actually switched on and off in the claustrum, as a non-neuro-professional I have to grant his metaphor some credence and resolve to investigate further. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English#Influence_of_other_languages http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_English#Influence_of_other_...
- Dylan16807 12y agoI just downvoted it for presenting a mostly-unsupported idea as fact.
- evincarofautumn 12y agoHedging with “I think” unnecessarily weakens the presentation of an idea. If you actually believe it, why wouldn’t you present it as fact? Then if some evidence comes along to disprove you, you change your mind.
- tesq 12y agoMost people recognize that beliefs aren't facts without evidence.
- Dylan16807 12y agoYou shouldn't have beliefs that strong about someone else's thought process as gathered through a single weakly-related sentence.
- nagrom 12y agoNo. The German word for key is schlüßel. The English word key is derived from the French word clé, meaning key.
- lobster_johnson 12y agoNot really. http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=Key&searchmode=none http://etymonline.com/index.php?allowed_in_frame=0&search=Ke...
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- keerthiko 12y agoAccording to Google[1] key in English is from an old English word of unknown origin. It also doesn't mean it has to come from the word of the exact same meaning in its origin language [1] https://www.google.com/webhp?ie=UTF-8#q=etymology%20key https://www.google.com/webhp?ie=UTF-8#q=etymology%20key
- richardfontana 12y agoWiktionary claims otherwise: http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/key#Etymology_1 http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/key#Etymology_1
- RivieraKid 12y agoThis is a really terrible analogy to be honest.
- jjallen 12y agoCare to expand on why you think so? I'm happy to learn from people that know more about neuro-subjects in general. Is it terrible or just imperfect?