I thought certain regions of the brain are associated with specific functions only because neuroplasticity?
I'm not a neurologist, but as far as I know, neuroplasticity lets the brain use other areas when damaged. But there are some 'defaults.' For example, the temporal lobe is ordinarily responsible for hearing and smelling. More importantly, this suggests the functions are discrete, as Minsky theorizes in the book, rather than some nebulous emergent amalgamation that can't be separated.I thought certain regions of the brain are associated with specific functions only because neuroplasticity?
Maybe there's only defaults because those are the pieces of the brain that are hooked up to hearing and smelling when we're born. They only seem like defaults because they've been wired for input from the ears and the nose for a long, long time, but if you switched those "wires" to a different section of the brain at birth, it would be just the same. I'm not a neurologist either, but I feel like if you have a generic algorithm that allows for neuroplasticity, then it's probably generic everywhere in the brain.