Question For All Ya'll Smart People (Bout The Human Brain)

POSTED BY: DarkHood
UPDATED: Saturday, June 5, 2004 18:12
VIEWED: 3296
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DARKHOOD

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 7:16 PM

What is the name of the part of the human brain which controls brain - mouth co-ordination? You know so when you think something it allows you to say it without realizing you even thought about it first.

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Mal's on the ground, about to get speared by Crow. A shot rings out. Crow is kneecapped.

Mal: Nice shot.

Jayne: I was aiming for his head.

THATWEIRDGIRL

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 11:23 PM

frontal lobe? You want something more specific huh.

whatever it is, I'm not sure mine works. The brain is suppose to process speech before I speak? Never knew that. I just stick my foot in mouth.

www.thatweirdgirl.com

THATWEIRDGIRL

Wednesday, June 2, 2004 11:25 PM

I think it's Broca's area. Maybe. I think.

www.thatweirdgirl.com

FIREFLYTHEMOVIE

Thursday, June 3, 2004 1:50 AM

Either that or Wernicke's area. You kinda need both for normal speech.

BOURNE

Thursday, June 3, 2004 2:12 AM

There are actually two general possible answers to your question. And which one depends upon what you mean by "brain-mouth coordination".

If you are referring to coordination of the facial, tongue, and palate muscles to produce meaningful sounds, that would be (to oversimplify things a little) the cerebellum.

If you mean the decision-making process of what to say, then THATWEIRDGIRL is partly correct: Broca's area shares some of the responsibility for figuring out what to say.

Then again, these are both just subroutines that are part of a complex - and still largely unknown - process. To get a better feel for it I recommend a somewhat-dated-but-still-relevant book called Conversations With Neil's Brain.

Or, if you're a masochist, you could pick up a recent edition of any graduate-level neuroanatomy text.

And only slightly tangential to your question is Jayne's paralysis in "Trash". Simon gave him a paralytic to minimize possible spinal cord injuries, yet he is still able to speak. This bugged me more than a little when I saw it. Because while it is possible to administer the paralytic intrathecally(directly into the CNS) at the appropriate level of the spinal cord to knock out everything from the neck down, Jayne's still breathing. That means that he at least has use of his diaphragm, supplied by C3-C5. Which would mean he'd be able to turn his head, shrug his shoulders (cranial nerve 11, originating at C1-C6), and operate some of his chest wall muscles.

Too much info, huh? :)

BOURNE

Thursday, June 3, 2004 2:24 AM

You're right about completely normal speech, but I think he(she?) was probably asking about producing the sounds of speech. Wernicke's area is more involved with understanding words you hear. People with Wernicke's aphasia can produce fluent, spontaneous speech, just not necessarily relevent replies. Lesions in Broca's area are more likely to appear like the person can't get their mouth to work right.

Yeah, yeah, not quite that simple, but....

FIREFLYTHEMOVIE

Saturday, June 5, 2004 6:12 PM

Oh, right. People with lesions in Wernicke's area are babblers (usually). Lots of non-sequiturs. Forgot. It's been awhile.

If you want a rather accessible (and actually fun/entertaining to read) explanation of how language works, pick up a copy of Stephen Pinker's The Language Instinct.