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<body><><><><><><><><><><><><>--This is the Language List--<><><><><><><><><><><><><><BR>
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<th valign="baseline" align="right" nowrap="">Subject: </th>
<td>[evol-psych] From Mouth to Mind</td>
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<th valign="baseline" align="right" nowrap="">Date: </th>
<td>Sat, 17 Aug 2002 16:56:45 -0600</td>
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<th valign="baseline" align="right" nowrap="">From: </th>
<td>Ian Pitchford <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ian.pitchford@scientist.com"><ian.pitchford@scientist.com></a></td>
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<th valign="baseline" align="right" nowrap="">Reply-To: </th>
<td>Ian Pitchford <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E" href="mailto:ian.pitchford@scientist.com"><ian.pitchford@scientist.com></a></td>
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<th valign="baseline" align="right" nowrap="">Organization: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://human-nature.com/">http://human-nature.com/</a></td>
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<th valign="baseline" align="right" nowrap="">To: </th>
<td><a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:evolutionary-psychology@yahoogroups.com">evolutionary-psychology@yahoogroups.com</a></td>
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<div><a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0008A2EF-23D7-1D2A-97CA809EC588EEDF&catID=2"><font
face="Arial">S</font><font face="Arial">cientific American</font></a></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
<div><font face="Arial">From Mouth to Mind<br>
New insights into how language warps the brain<br>
<br>
By W. Wayt Gibbs</font></div>
<div><br>
<font face="Arial">"Liver." The word rises from the voice box and passes
the lips. It beats <br>
the air, enters an ear canal, sets nerve cells firing. Electrochemical <br>
impulses stream into the auditory cortex of a listener's brain. But then
<br>
what? How does the brain's neural machinery filter that complex stream of
<br>
auditory input to extract the uttered word: "liver"--or was it "river,"
or <br>
perhaps "lever"?<br>
<br>
Researchers at the Acoustical Society of America meeting in June reported
<br>
brain imaging studies and clinical experiments that expose new details of
<br>
how the first language we learn warps everything we hear later. Some <br>
neuroscientists think they are close to explaining, at a physical level,
<br>
why many native Japanese speakers hear "liver" as "river," and why it is
so <br>
much easier to learn a new language as a child than as an adult.<br>
<br>
At the ASA conference, Paul Iverson of University College London presented
<br>
maps of what people hear when they listen to sounds that span the continuum
<br>
between the American English phonemes /ra/ and /la/. Like many phonemes,
<br>
/ra/ and /la/ differ mainly in the three or four frequencies that carry
the <br>
most energy. Iverson had his computer synthesize sounds in which the second
<br>
and third most dominant frequencies varied in regular intervals, like dots
<br>
on a grid. He then asked English, German and Japanese speakers to identify
<br>
each phoneme and to rate its quality.<br>
<br>
Full text</font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"><a
href="http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0008A2EF-23D7-1D2A-97CA809EC588EEDF&catID=2">http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?articleID=0008A2EF-23D7-1D2A-97CA809EC588EEDF&catID=2</a></font></div>
<div><font face="Arial"></font> </div>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="$mailwrapcol">--
M. Hubey
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:hubeyh@mail.montclair.edu">hubeyh@mail.montclair.edu</a> /\/\/\/\//\/\/\/\/\/\/<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey">http://www.csam.montclair.edu/~hubey</a></pre>
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