<H4>>Jacob, our third child, was delivered by Caesarian Section. The doctors allowed me to be next to my wife, Linda, to witness the delivery. The memories are still sharp years later. I
remember the fear and attraction as the surgeon made the first
cuts into Linda -- who was wide awake! I recall the smells and
sounds of the place and even recall the doctors talking about
their financial investments and families as they opened her up.
In spite of the specific and clear recollections of the birth, it
still remains an overwhelming yet muddy memory for me and I
can't totally comprehend what it was like for her. Then, seeing
this little person lifted out of my partner had the effect of
putting other events into a perspective that made them seem
trivial. Jacob's birth was at that moment the most vivid and yet
unreal experience of my life. My mind still does not have it
fully integrated into the assumptions I make about living. And
when I try to appreciate the sensation and shock that Jacob's
system was enduring, I can only wonder. Did he feel it all? Was
he aware of the significance of this passage? Was he aware of
anything at all? Did it hurt? Did he make any sense of the
information that flooded his senses? Will he remember any of it?
The difference between what was happening to Linda and me in
that moment of birth and what was happening to Jacob is immense.
There is a great gulf between a human who has a history and the
human who has but the urge to make one. For his first history
making experience, Jacob was thrust across the gulf into separate
humanity. His Pilgrimage had begun. </H4>
<H4>The pilgrimage that begins at birth is to a large degree a
journey made possible by the brain and by the brain's systems as
they are immersed into a family and culture. What could
knowledge of those systems tell us about how to nurture pilgrims?
Might knowledge of the brain inform us in religious education?
Could it tell us something about the religious educator's agenda
and methods? Like a good gardener learning to care for a plant
by learning botany, wouldn't we be wise to let cognitive science
inform us? For the next few pages, I want to explore just that.
I want to propose that the central nervous system can teach us a
thing or two. And in the process, I hope you will be able to
celebrate what I have come to think of as the central miracle of
human being: that we can come to know, to grasp meaning, to be
aware, to develop a faith and to project futures that take shape
first in the concert of chemicals, synapses and systems of the
tissues of the brain.</H4>
<CENTER>LESSON NUMBER ONE:
THE NEW BRAIN HAS A FULL AGENDA </CENTER>
<H4>The moment of birth is more like the graduation of a student
than a cold start of an engine. The day of our birth marks that
moment of separation from the matrix upon which we first take
shape. The months of development before birth are full of
landmark events; not the least of which have to do with the
development of nerve tissue. It is testimony to the importance
of the brain to our total system that the greater amount of
oxygen and food supplied to the fetus is directed to the
formation of nerve tissue. The nearly nine months of development
we human beings go through in mother might best be described as
nine months of neurological development that just happens to be
accompanied by the development of the rest of the body and its
systems. 1</H4>
<H4>Consider this: in just 18 days after conception, the first
neural cells appear, marking the rapid and intricate development
of the brain. The brain and spinal cord change from hints of a
nervous system to a sort of stalk with a bulb at one end. Within
weeks it achieves the shape and segmentation that we are familiar
with. By the time the baby arrives, the brain and it's related
sensors have been at work for weeks. The genetic plan has
already "etched" into the circuitry of the infant brain programs
that make the baby human able to take on and take in the world
that buzzes around it.</H4>
<H4>Mammals come in two varieties: cocial and precocial.
Cocial mammals are the ones that are mostly complete at birth.
Thus, animals like the horse or cow are able to find their "land
legs" within hours after leaving their amniotic "ocean." They
begin to explore their worlds within a day or two. Precocial
mammals, on the other hand, are those mammals who, when born,
cannot thrive without the nearly constant attention of the mother
and/or father. Precocials still have a good bit of development
and growth that must take place before they are "complete." 2
Humans are precocial. We are born with an incomplete
system, and most importantly with a partially developed nervous
system. For us, mother/father will continue to be our matrix for
at least two years.</H4>
<H4>In those two years, the brain makes huge strides toward
completion. Thise strides include 1) the multiplying of
connections from one brain cell to another (the web of connectors
between nerve cells called dendrites) as learning and stimulation
happens; 2) the completion of the bundles of nerves that connect
the left and right cortex; 3) the full insulation of the billions
of neurons with tissue called myelin; 4) the development of cells
and cell connections in the frontal lobes that, when completed,
allows the person to make plans, remember instructions and
restrain what he or she learns is inappropriate behavior.3</H4>
<H4>Yes, horses do get their acts together faster than do we,
but our acts are considerably more complex and a larger part of
our behavior has to be learned. Still, we are born with a few
tricks tucked away in the synapses of our brains. When Jacob
arrived, many of his programs showed themselves right away. His
arms flew out when he was turned (the"moro reflex" that restores
balance), he was able to hold a finger (the grasping reflex), he
pushed his head against Linda's neck when his face was caressed
(the rooting reflex), he sneezed when the doctor shined a light
into his closed eyes (sneezing reflex), and his mouth greeted the
world with the sucking response.4</H4>
<H4>Many of these inborn programs insure the child's safety.
For example, infants are born with is the ability to recognize a
"cliff edge" (like the edge of a bed or table) and avoid the
drop-off even if they have never before experienced a dangerous
"cliff." The presence of this "hard-wired" depth perception has
been demonstrated in experiments where babies were placed on a
half transparent, half opaque table. The babies could not venture
onto the transparent part that seemed to be the edge of the table
even when coaxed by their mothers. The babies innately perceived
the "cliff" and reacted to it as if were a danger.5</H4>
<H4>Other inborn programs aid vision. They are the strategies
of scanning and pursuit. Seeing anything is a complex process.
There are numerous points at which the process can be interrupted
including the very pointing of the eyes at an object of interest.
There are three actions that the muscles of the eyes have to
perform if there is to be seeing: rapid or jerking movements
(saccades) from shape to shape, the smooth pursuit motion after a
shape is attended to, and the rapid, minute tremor that keeps the
image from going "stale" on a particular part of the retina (it
seems that if an image continues to fall on exactly the same
cells of the retina, the cells would become desensitized and the
image would fade). The saccade motion is the search strategy
that allows the baby to scan the world for shapes, shades and for
things of interest and meaning. The pursuit or "locking on"
ability makes it possible for the baby to watch long enough to
satisfy her interest.6</H4>
<H4>We are also born with programs that aid social interaction.
Many researchers believe we are born with a program that leads a
baby to look for and "recognize" a face. With the aid of eye
tracking equipment, researchers are able to trace the movement of
a baby's eyes as it scans pictures of faces. There is an
unmistakable triangular scanning pattern that, when superimposed
on the picture, traces the lines between eyes and mouth. This
behavior is already in place at birth. Of all the objects that a
baby could scan, faces (and even pictures of faces) are nearly
always preferred. Facial recognition is "hardwired."7
Some of these "interaction" programs involve both the baby
and mother. Crying, smiling, rooting, nursing, and grasping are
programs present at the child's beginning. Together they work to
create a bond between the mother and baby. This bond becomes the
anchor for the baby's life. The bond and empathetic
give-and-take between the mother and baby is even generalized to
the degree that babies only a few weeks old are able to empathize
with other "faces" in their worlds. Their vital signs resonate
naturally with the joy and distress of other babies as well as
with their mothers.8</H4>
<H4>Perhaps the most surprising of the inborn programs for
social action is the ability to use words. Dr. Noam Chomsky's
pioneering work in language development points to the conclusion
that, although we are not born with language, we seem to be born
with an organization system in our cortex that acts as a set of
rules for grammar and syntax.9 As Chomsky studied the way
children of many diverse cultures learn language he found
similarities in the syntax mistakes children made from culture to
culture. These "mistakes" he concluded were evidence of inborn
rules of grammar and syntax. Some of these "natural" rules have
to be "unlearned" in order to conform with the child's native
language. Chomsky is convinced that grammar and syntax are
inborn. At the very least, the fascination for and attention to
talking is a given for an infant. However meaningless the words
and sounds, what parent has not "conversed" with his or her
new-born with the rapt attention and even vocal response being
contributed by the infant? These operations and "rules," Chomsky
would argue, are carried in our genetic code.10</H4>
<H4>The point is, babies are not "blank slates." What is
etched on the genetic slate at birth are programs and reflexes
making each newborn poised to "consume" the world, to seek out
patterns in it, to commune and communicate, recreate the secure
duet it left at birth, to organize its experiences and survive.
Every child is busy recreating the world it experiences - a world
of MEANING.</H4>
<H4>Our first lesson is this: a person, although physically
incomplete at birth, does not begin life without an agenda and
modus operandi. Rather, a person shows up looking for faces,
ready to eat, able to alert parents of trouble, cautious of its
space, and hungry -- voraciously hungry -- for patterns of
experience that can be made sense of. The new brain is not so
much a sponge drinking in what ever washes over it. It is
rather like a very hungry wolf looking for food in a domain it
has never stalked before. Its food is meaning. The lesson means
that religious educators don't have to train people to be
philosophers, theologians and pilgrims, that is what we are. We
are not called to make people religious or to attract them to
things of the spirit, we are called to gather the resources of
our traditions and present them as tools for the spirit journeys
each one has been on since birth.</H4>
<CENTER> ---------------------- </CENTER>
<H5>ACTION 1
Spend a morning with a new-born person. Look for some of the
behaviors that have been described as "hard-wired." If the baby
is well and satisfied, then provide her some diversion. A small
ball on a string may allow you to see the baby's scanning,
attending, and grasping ability. Be patient. The baby has the
program and intention to grasp, but may lack the muscle control
to do it well. Computer enhanced analysis of what seemed to be
random flailing of babies was indeed attempts to grasp. Watch
also for the baby's attention jumps. What gets her attention?
What sounds seem to be noticed? See if you can, play peek-a-boo.
Does the baby respond? How? Does the baby repeat behaviors?
Which ones? Take time to notice the baby's behavior and look for
evidence of intention. </H5>
<CENTER> ------------------------- </CENTER>
<CENTER>LESSON TWO:
THE BRAIN CREATES THE WORLD </CENTER>
<H4>However incomplete, the new human embarks immediately on the
hunt for meaning and pattern. In concert with its needs for
food, warmth, and touching, the new person begins to take in the
world in patterns. Eyes, ears, nose, tongue and skin are not as
discerning as they will become, but they are sensitive to those
things that are necessary to be comfortable and pleasant.
Through them, the baby's brain goes about its task of building a
model of the world that he or she begins to depend upon.
Ideally, at the center of the child's world, will be a model
built out of the warmth of skin, soft sounds and the pleasant
taste and scent that it will later know as parent.
As eyes and ears begin to collect information, the child's
world widens and becomes deeper. With the help of "pre-wired"
strategies, the child is able to enjoy and even exert some
control over the world. Faces (human and animal) begin to stand
out as distinct sub-models that live in his/her world. The first
year is a sort of reprise of the cosmic "big bang" except that it
happens in the head of this new human rather than at the center
of the universe. It is an explosion of patterns and meaning
within the mind of the child. The child comes into the world
with no preconceptions or expectations of what this place is. The
template is blank, but with the help of the strategies for
grasping patterns, the model begins to take shape immediately.11 </H4>
<H4>Why must we depend on the models of self, home, family,
yard, street, etc.? Why is it not possible to simply take each
new experience as it comes and act within it as the raw data
demands? The answer lies at the heart of the way we think.
Action grows out of understanding. We can't act meaningfully in
a situation unless we have some degree of understanding of it.
Understanding happens when what we sense in the present matches
memories that we have already arranged into a meaningful pattern.
This "template matching," as cognitive psychologists call it,
makes recognition possible and at the same time is the procedure
whereby our attention gets focused.12</H4>
<H4>Let me use Jacob as an example of the way the modeling makes
it possible to recognize things and to focus attention. Jacob
shared a room with his older brother Nathan. He became "at home"
with the room as a model of it took shape in his brain. It was
familiar. Not long after Jacob started living in the room, Linda
added animal pictures at eye level near his crib. Most of the
pictures showed the faces of the animals quite clearly. When he
saw them for the first time, his attention was drawn to them. He
was drawn first because his model did not include these pictures
as part of the room. His template of the room did not include
what he saw on the wall. This mismatch drew his eyes to the
novelty of the pictures. His attention was held because the
pictures scored a match with another model in his active brain:
faces. Any change of the environment would have caused Jacob's
attention to become focused on the change for a moment just
because of the mismatch between expectation and experience.
Jacob gazed for a long while (long for a baby) at the pictures.
He was drawn to something novel and was surprised to recognize
something pleasantly familiar. He spent several moments going
from one picture to the other touching the eyes of the animals
and making sounds babies make when they interact with their world
happily.</H4>
<CENTER>------------------------ </CENTER>
<H5>ACTION 2
Playing "Peek-a-Boo" with a child is the gentle tampering with a
child's model-building. There are two elements of cognition that
create the fun the child experiences: the surprise of a
template mismatch and the almost immediate "shock" of pleasant
recognition. Add to these two experiences the element of
anticipation of the "peek" or the disruption of the child's
expectations and the experience can be hilarious for the child.
It works like this: the child's line of sight is fairly
uneventful when all-of-a-sudden you intrude into it with a silly
grin or expression. Her model is disrupted and at almost the
same time another one is overlaid onto it--one that is pleasant
and familiar: you. Just when that new image is taking its place
as the model of the present, you duck out of sight only to pop up
somewhere else and the process starts again. Play "peek-a-boo"
with a baby you know well and try to be aware of these elements
of mismatch and recognition. A question: why does the game
finally get "old" for the child?</H5>
<CENTER> ---------------------------</CENTER>
<H4>For the rest of the Jacob's life, it will be the unfolding,
evolving, and sometimes drastically reconstructed models of life
that will make it possible for him to act and be in the world.
So important is this modeling that Jacob (like you or me) will
hold on to old models and beliefs long after the data that he
gets through the senses contradicts that world view. Similarly,
he will, when an important situation or experience seems
baffling, make mighty leaps of logic and jumps to conclusions on
the slimmest of evidence just to be able to quench the nagging
need to make sense of things.</H4>
<H4>So what does that mean for our task as religious educators?
It means that all the data, skills, information and concepts that
make up religious curriculum are of value to the pilgrim only to
the degree they contribute to a meaningful model of the world.
It means that we will know how well we have taught and nurtured
students by testing those models, not by testing a student's
mastery of data and skills. Yet, it also means that the steps to
building high fidelity models of life must include mastery of new
skills and information. Finally, it means that our role as
nurturers is primarily one of guide, witness or docent who has
absolute trust in the ability of a learner to take what is
experienced and make their own sense of the world.</H4>
<CENTER>LESSON THREE:
THE MULTIPLEX BRAIN</CENTER>
<H4>In the late 70's at UCLA, methods were developed whereby a
camera was able to photograph cross sections of a human brain
sequentially from base to top. When shown at 16 frames per
second the viewer is able to visually "glide" through the
physical structures of the brain. When I first saw the film, I
experienced the same sort of effect that I did on my first
viewing of a photograph of the Earth from space. As the Earth
picture was able to fill out my model of Earth-in-space, so the
brain movie was able to offer a clearer perspective of the
brain-in-the- head. The readjustment was so complete as to make
it possible for me to imagine the brain in a new way and with far
more clarity and wholeness than before. </H4>
<H4>I want to offer a verbal tour of the structures of the brain
emerging out of that insight. It won't have the impact of the
motion picture tour but I hope it will reveal to you the
multiplex nature of the brain: that is the variety of ways the
brain receives, processes and organizes information and
experiences. The more we understand its extensive repertoire of
strategies, the better we can craft events and experiences that
will help persons build their worlds.</H4>
<H4>BOTTOM-TO-TOP: WHERE WE THINK <a href="fig1.jpg">[see figure 1.1].</a>
When the brain is described from the base to the top there
emerges a very definite pattern. Briefly stated, the pattern is
this: the structures are arranged as a sort of analog of the
evolution of vertebrate brains. The first vertebrates (fish,
reptiles and birds) required very specific central nervous system
functions that could control the relative complexity of their
bodies. They needed a complex memory system, a complex
regulatory system and a new attention system for dealing with
feeding and with predators. Our brains contain the same
structures. They are clustered about the brain stem and are
sometimes called the "reptilian brain" or the "old brain." The
first of these structures is the cerebellum. It is a golf-ball
sized structure that is our "automatic pilot." When Jacob was
learning to walk, he had to perform a very deliberate and
considered set of actions. As his muscles became more responsive
to his intentions, the set of operations that he had to perform
became automatic. Now he runs, jumps, and walks without a
thought about the complicated concert of motions that are
required. In fact, if he had to think of all the steps needed to
run he would not be able to do it. The motions are now
orchestrated and timed by the cerebellum automatically. Every
vertebrate animal has a well developed cerebellum or its like.13</H4>
<H4>If the cerebellum is the automatic pilot, the ascending
reticular system is the alarm and regulatory systems. Like a
shaft buried up into the brain, the reticular system is made up
of the Medulla Oblongata (regulates essential functions like
breathing), the Reticular Formation (regulates sleep and
wakefulness and is responsible for arousing the attention of the
cortex), and the Pons (also responsible for awareness and
attention).14</H4>
<H4>Located at the top of the pons and around it like a mushroom
are the structures known as the "mid brain" or the Limbic System.
The Mid Brain includes the Thalamus (responsible for routing
impulses from the old brain and the mid brain to the cortex as
well as for the generation of emotions), the Hypothalamus
(responsible the sending signals of hunger, thirst and sexual
arousal to the cortex), the Hippocampus (responsible for linking
new experience and insights with pleasure and for differentiating
very close sequences of experience into serial events that the
cortex can decode into meaning -- as in reading or listening to a
person's words) and several other tiny structures having to do
with emotions, smell and the integration of the various
structures. The Limbic System is the source of our emotions,
pleasure, pain, and spurs the cortex to action with help from the
pons.15</H4>
<H4>Finally, at the top of the brain like a cap protecting the
more primitive structures is the cerebral cortex. Whereas the
old and mid brains have very definite functions for each
structure, the cortex is the "generalist" member of the brain
"team." It is responsible for functions like memory storage,
planning, meaning making, calculation, speech, voluntary muscle
control and consciousness. Many of these functions are not
located in specific places. In fact, some seem to be spread out
all over the cortex. It is the most massive of all the
structures of the brain and is the latest development in animal
evolution.</H4>
<H4>So, as we scan the brain from bottom to top, what is
revealed is a living chronicle of brain evolution. At the base,
automatic regulatory functions grind on from moment to moment.
In the mid brain the mechanisms for attention, arousal and
emotions find their origins. Then in the cortex, meaning and
moment combine with feeling and attention to generate meaning,
thoughts, voluntary action and self awareness.16</H4>
<H4>BACK-TO-FRONT: WHAT WE THINK
<a href="fig2.jpg">[see figure 1.2].</a>
As the bottom-to-top scan tells us some-thing about the
natural history of the brain, the back-to-front scan can tell us
something of the vastness and range of functions that find their
origins in the cortex. This is not to say that one can locate
all these functions in precise positions (although some can be
located), rather it is to say that there are general areas of the
cortex that are dedicated to more-or-less specific functions and
as we consider these areas from back-to-front we will gain a
sense of the cortex' enormous work and general "division of
labor."17</H4>
<H4>The cortex is grayish in color, divided into two halves or
hemispheres, and is convoluted into folds. Yet it looks uniform.
Let's begin at the back of the brain and move forward with an eye
toward discovering some of the functions that are more-or-less
localized. The very back of the cortex is that area called the
Occipital Lobe. This palm-sized area is the receiver of nerve
signals from the eyes. It is responsible for the decoding visual
information into patterns that can be compared to visual memories
and models already in the brain. If there is any part of the
cortex that has a special look to it that sets it apart from the
rest of the cortex, it is this area. The occipital lobes (or
"striate" or "visual" cortex, as the area is sometimes called)
are actually a magnified "map" of the eyes' retinas. The cell
arrangement of this area is such that it looks striped and the
cells receive data from a corresponding area of either the right
or left half or the retina of each eye.18</H4>
<H4>The largest part of the cortex are the Parietal Lobes
occupying roughly the middle top and sides of the cortex. They
include the areas that deal with touch, language (on the left
side more so than on the right), motor control, and other of the
senses. However, most of the cells of the Parietal lobes are
"uncommitted." That is to say that there is no specific action,
perception or cognition that is controlled by the uncommitted
region.</H4>
<H4>Below the parietal regions on either side of the brain are
large folds called the Temporal Lobes. These lobes are concerned
with the interpreting of signals from the ears, contribute to our
sense of scale when we perceive objects visually and there is
some involvement of the temporal region in "tagging" memories
with the emotional tone that we might call "familiarity." This
latter conclusion is supported by experiences of persons who
suffer from epilepsy originating from a temporal lobe. It seems
that when the emotional tone is recalled by itself, it causes
what is popularly known as "deja vu." The tone comes to
consciousness along with the sense that what ever one is
presently experiencing is familiar. We all have those
experiences. Temporal lobe epileptics are flooded with this deja
vu feeling during a seizure.19 Beyond these functions, the cells
of the temporal lopes are also uncommitted. </H4>
<H4>The two Frontal Lobes are highly developed in human beings.
Other primates have them, but they are not as prominent as they
are in humans. Although they too contain large areas of
uncommitted neurons, there are three specific functions that
operate there. One is the decoding place of signals from the
olfactory nerves that allow us to perceive smells.</H4>
<H4>The second function of the frontal lobes has to do with
planning. From this front part of the brain, originates the
mechanism for keeping our attention on a plan that we devise.
When we set a plan in motion, its success depends on our keeping
our minds on the end goal as well as keeping the steps in our
consciousness. This is accomplished by a peculiar brain wave
frequency that is generated in the front of our heads. It is
called the expectancy wave (the Contingent Negative Variation or
CNV Wave) and is a sort of "place keeper" as we plan. If you
have ever become distracted from what you were working on and
forgotten a task in progress, you may have experienced a nagging
feeling that there was something that you forgot or left
unfinished. That feeling is a product of the CNV wave trying to
pull you back to the unfinished task.20</H4>
<H4>The third function located in the frontal lobes has to do
with inhibitions and social restraint. Taboos, mores, and social
convention are enforced from the front of the brain. Perhaps the
most dramatic evidence of this connection between the frontal
cortex and social restraint comes to us from the unfortunate
experience of Phineas Gage. Mr. Gage was a Vermont railroad
foreman who, in 1848, was struck in the head by a metal rod as a
result of an explosion. The rod went clean through his forehead
and left frontal lobe.</H4> <H4>Gage survived without any impairment to his overall health or intellect. However, kindly, patient, hard-working, soft spoken Phineas Gage became for the rest of his life "fitful, irreverent, indulging at times in the grossest profanity ...manifesting but little deference to his fellows, impatient of restraint or advice when it conflicts with his desires." (quoted from his physician) When Gage died, an autopsy revealed extensive damage to the front portion of his left
frontal lobe. He was described as child-like in his attention
span and awareness of the social consequences of his actions.
Child-like is an apt description because the frontal lobes are
not fully developed in humans until perhaps 5 or 6 years of
age.21</H4>
<H4>This back-to-front look at the cortex leads me to two
perceptions. The first is that the cortex has a lot to do. It
is not that the tasks are so varied, rather it is that the
over-all job that the tasks contribute to is so large. By
receiving and assimilating the constant input from the senses,
the cortex is fired up by the older parts of the brain to remake
the outside world on the inside; not just the physical world, but
the ecology of social and human interconnection of which it is a
part. It is an impossible job, yet, here we are!</H4>
<H4>The second perception is that the cortex has to be flexible
and efficient enough to always be "making up its mind." Thus the
millions of uncommitted neurons wait to be programmed and
reprogrammed with memory, skills, plans, perceptions, cognitive
processes and awareness. While there is an impressive difference
between the other mammals and humans as to the size of the brain,
the more impressive difference is in the amount of uncommitted
cerebral cortex. Our 'gray matter' is a vast storehouse and
processing plant for our perceptions of the entire universe!</H4>
<H4>LEFT-TO-RIGHT: HOW WE THINK
<a href="fig3.jpg">[see figure 1.3].</a>
The third axis that can be meaningfully travelled is the one
that explores the cortex from left to right. The back-to-front
look reveals to us various places that the cortex uses to arrange
and model the physical and social world. The left-to-right look
shows us a range of thinking styles that we employ in order to
understand and add to the world.</H4>
<H4>The left and right halves of the cortex are, on the
surface, roughly mirror images of each other (see fig. 1.4 in "Synapse"). There
is some evidence that one tends to be larger than the other, but
the data indicates that it is a matter of individual diversity.
The two halves or cerebral hemispheres are connected by a thick
"cable" of 200 million nerve fibers called the corpus
callosum.22 At birth, this connector is relatively small and
does not function to the capacity that it does in adulthood.
Some time during adolescence, the connector reaches its mature
size and function. It is through this connector that most of the
information and cognitive abilities of the two sides are
integrated.</H4>
<H4>Nothing in our physical make-up is without function, and
that is especially true of the brain. What are the functions of
two-sided nature of the cortex? First, its lateralized nature
means that the spatial sensations (touch, sight, hearing, and to
a degree smell) are registered in the cortex spatially. The left
brain receives the impulses that represent the right side of the
world and the right brain receives the left. Likewise, the
lateralized nature of the cortex means that the voluntary muscles
of the body that are mirrored on each side are instructed from
one side of the cortex' motor control or the other. The left
side of the body is instructed by the right motor area and the
right side of the body is instructed by the left motor area of
the cortex.23</H4>
<H4>But there is more. There are some functions that are
controlled from one side only -- without any mirrored control on
the other. Language is the clearest case in point (refer to
illustration 1.2). Since Paul Broca first documented the
relation of brain damage to the loss of speech around 1860, it
has been more-or-less taken for granted that speaking, and
understanding words are functions that are controlled (in most
people) from specific areas of the left cortex. In fact there
are two areas that are now known to control language functions:
Broca's Area24 located just above the left temple (it controls
the ability to form spoken words), and Wernicke's Area25 located
above and behind the left ear (it controls the ability to
understand words). When there is injury to any of these areas,
there is language loss of some kind. There is no corresponding
area on the right side.</H4>
<H4>What is found when there is damage (due to accident or
stroke) to the right cortex is that spatial perception is most
often affected. Victims of this sort of damage are many times
left without any awareness of one whole side of their world or
are no longer able to find their way from one place to another.
One of the puzzles of the asymmetry of the cortex is that
some of the functions that are lateralized in adults seem not to
be lateralized in children. Language is again the prime example.
Medical research into cases where there has been brain damage to
the speech centers of adults usually show little return of full
speech. Yet similar damage to children does not mean loss of
speech anywhere near the rate it does in adults. The younger the
child, the better the recovery. The conclusion that this sort of
research has led to is that speech and language in young children
is still not permanently located on one side or the other. If
there is damage to what is becoming the speech center, the
uncommitted cortex is new and vast enough to take up the slack.
<H4>In adults, the cortex is not so pliable or unused.</H4>
The asymmetrical nature of what the cortex does has spawned
a great deal of research, debate and conjecture. When it is
sorted out as well as can be at this stage of knowledge, what is
firm is that the left cortex is the verbal/logical brain and the
right cortex is the visio/spatial brain. Not only does this mean
that the left brain controls speech and language understanding
and the right handles visual and spatial data, it also means that
the way that memories and data are processed by the left tends to
be verbal and sequential and that the right tends to use images
and be more holistic. The thinking styles of the left and right
are different. Just how they are different is hard for
scientists to pin down but a composite list of right-left
thinking style descriptions looks like this:
</H4>
<CENTER> LEFT------------------------RIGHT<LI>
-----------------------------------<LI>
logical-------------------intuitive<LI>
intellectual--------------sensual<LI>
rational------------------mythical<LI>
abstract------------------concrete<LI>
sequential----------------holistic<LI>
verbal--------------------visual/spatial<LI>
scientific----------------poetic26<LI></CENTER>
<H4>There does, then, seem to be two ways of processing
information corresponding to the two hemispheres, but within the
two hemispheres there is even more division of labor. Evaluating
human cognitive abilities just in terms of right-left thinking
skills is a bit too simple. The split-brain research has led to
research about intelligence in general and the discovery that we
have at least seven distinct cognitive abilities. Asymmetry
studies paved the way to this broadened view of intelligence. We
will look at this fresh approach in a later chapter.</H4>
<H4>THEME AND VARIATION
My intention has been to give the reader a glimpse of the
"equipment" of the brain and of some of its essential programs
with which we are born. I have tried to show that these programs
and the organization of the brain make us beings that seek
pattern and meaning in our experience. Further, we create models
of the world in our brains that allow us to interact with the
world and to be creative within it (see fig 1.5 in "Synapse"). This is the
"theme" around which each of us composes unique variations.
Jacob was born "itching" to find and create patterns within a
meaningful world. From here on out his models and creations will
be similar to others but still one-of-a-kind in a world full of
one-of-a-kinds. How fulfilled and creative his pilgrimage will
be will depend on many factors but at the base, three cognitive
factors will be at work:
1. his ability to use both his verbal/logical and his
visio/spatial thinking styles and their related functions,
intelligences and programs,
2. his ability to acquire, use and reorganize his stock of
knowledge and memories that are "high fidelity" models of the
world as it is, and
3. his ability to be a self aware agent within his world.
It is from these three abilities that a person can engage
and contribute to a world.</H4>
<H4>Where this point of view intersects with the church is in
the acquiring of these three abilities and a stock of knowledge.
In the church we are concerned with the pilgrimages of persons.
Each person walks the same ageless path toward meaning but with a
unique stride. It is our vocation to help in the equipping of
pilgrims. What would we conclude if we test the content and
methods of education and nurture in the church? Would we find it
strong or weak from this cognitive perspective? Would we find
that we are encouraging fresh variations on the human theme or
would we find that we are trying to teach only one song? Would
we find that we are encouraging religious thinking and acting
that is mostly verbal or visual? Would we find persons being
encouraged to be creators and pilgrims all their lives or simply
for the first 18 years? Would we find that the methods we use
for education are a pleasure or a bore? Would we find a richness
of history and tradition that adds to a person's usable stock of
knowledge and self awareness or would the history and tradition
be scattered around as stumbling blocks for seekers? Would we
find teachers that are respectful guides or controlling keepers
of secrets?</H4>
<H4>I have no doubt that the brain works in such a way that
human beings cannot help but be religious. We are biologically
moved to seek faith and live in fidelity with our visions -- our
models -- of the universe. If that drive is propelled by the
motor we call the brain, then religious educators and leaders
must look closely at how it works. Not only will we be informed
in the way we nurture faith, we may also see the imprint of that
which makes life and meaning possible.</H4>
<CENTER>-----------------</CENTER>
<CENTER>Notes for Chapter One</CENTER>
1 R. Thompson, The Brain - An Introduction to Neuroscience
(San Francisco: W.H. Freeman & Co., 1985): 253<LI>
2 J. Z. Young, Programs of the Brain (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1978): 146 <LI>
3 K. Klivington, The Science of Mind (Massachusetts: MIT Press,
1989): 147<LI>
4 Young, 9<LI>
5 I. Rock, Perception (New York: Scientific American Books,
1984): 83<LI>
6 Young, 117<LI>
7 Ibid., 120<LI>
8 Ibid., 146<LI>
9 J. Campbell, Grammatical Man (New York: Simon and Schuster,
1982): 127<LI>
10 C. Hampden-Turner Maps Of The Mind New York: MacMillan, 1981):
146<LI>
11 J. Anderson, Cognitive Psychology and its Implications (San
Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1986): 32<LI>
12 C. Furst, The Origins of the Mind (Inglewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Printice-Hall, 1979): 45-46<LI>
13 Ibid., 28<LI>
14 J. Fincher, The Brain: Mystery of Matter and Mind (New York:
Torstar Books, 1984): 22<LI>
15 Ibid., 122<LI>
16 G. R. Taylor, The Natural History of the Mind (New York:
Dutton, 1979): 29<LI>
17 Thompson, 24<LI>
18 Furst, 39<LI>
19 Taylor, 154<LI>
20 Furst, 189-90<LI>
21 Klivington, 195<LI>
22 S. Springer & G. Deutsch, Left Brain, Right Brain, 3rd ed.
(San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, Co. 1989): 67<LI>
23 Klivington, 135<LI>
24 G. Miller, The Science of Words (New York: Scientific
