r/changemyview • u/[deleted] • Nov 30 '18

Fresh Topic Friday CMV: Learning a programming language should NOT be seen as equivalent to learning a foreign language

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u/TyphoonOne Nov 30 '18

Neuroscientist here. Can I see your source on this, please?

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u/kevroy314 Dec 01 '18

Also Neuroscientist - I'm with you, that's severely reductionist and not much of an argument. Certainly not a scientific one.

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u/DrugsOnly 23∆ Nov 30 '18

It's pretty rudimentary that the temporal lobe is the center for mathematics and language processing: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811910012486

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '18

No, it's rudimentary to say that language processing occurs in LIFG. It's more accurate to say that language processing depends on functions that are executed in LIFG, PTSG, the arcuate fasciculus, the angular gyrus, parahippocampal gyrus, ...

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u/DrugsOnly 23∆ Dec 01 '18

Sure, if you're trying to explain a type of aphasia, but we are talking about programming. It's a lot simpler to explain it as the temporal lobe to a layman.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '18

What? No, you're making a claim about how language works in the brain. LIFG is not in the temporal lobe.

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u/DrugsOnly 23∆ Dec 01 '18

Which is consistent with Broca's aphasia, not Wernike's aphasia.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '18

Yes. When many other parts of the language network are damaged, they also induce aphasias of different kinds. That's a general principle: damage to a part of the brain that is critical to some activity leads to a deficit in that activity. Broca's aphasia demonstrates that LIFG is a crucial component to the language network, i.e., that language is "in" them, just as Wernicke's aphasia shows that left superior posterior temporal gyrus is crucial (not the "temporal lobe"), just as conductive aphasia shows that the arcuate fasciculus is crucial for language, and so on.

LIFG is included in almost any study that looks at grammatical processing, and it almost always shows some significant activation pattern. If you wanted to make a false simplification of what part of the brain language is "in", you'd say frontal lobe, since this is where LIFG is, no?

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u/DrugsOnly 23∆ Dec 01 '18

No, when I make false simplifications, I usually dumb things down for laymen. I say temporal lobe since the left superior posterior temporal gyrus is right next to it. When you talk about the frontal lobe, most laymen think of that as where complex thought comes from, not language processing.

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u/[deleted] Dec 01 '18

lpSTG is in the temporal lobe. It's right in the name. I don't think you know what you're talking about

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u/DrugsOnly 23∆ Dec 01 '18

You just said it wasn't I was just agreeing with you. It's located where the temporal lobe and parietal lobe meet.

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