h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A655337

A short entry (well, it's short by my standards...) on the two halves of the brain, their similarities, differences, and how we know the differences exist.

All comments, as always, gratefully received!

Stay ,
WD

Hey WD, got a few points:

1) I cant make sense of the Language, Left paragraph at all Im afraid...

"Lesions in the area which is responsible for the expression of language - leads to a difficulty in the expression of language, even though they may know what to say, they cannot put it into a recognisable sentence. Lesions in the area which is responsible for the comprehension of language, can speak with great fluency, but the content is pure gibberish."

my tentative suggestion :
Lesions in the area which is responsible for the expression of language lead to a difficulty in the expression of language. People with lesions, even though they may know what to say, cannot put it into a recognisable sentence. Those with lesions in the area which is responsible for the comprehension of language, can speak with great fluency, but the content is pure gibberish.

Or are people with lesions refered to as lesions? SOmething doesnt seem quite right about it anyway



2)I dont like the first footnote too much either - it contains information significant enough there and then to be part of the main body of text, and then is said in the main body of text later on anyway. Repeating yourself on iportant points is perfectly reasonable, but if it is so iportant, why have it first appear in a footnote?



3) Would some mention on handedness not be appropiate? I cant remember off top of my head any details, but dont left handed tend to be better at right side of the brain tyoe stuff and vise versa or something? , wish I could remember everything i ever read... memory like swiss cheese.

And cant the brains of people which have had one side lobotomised (sp?) adapt so that whichever side of the brain is left can learn to function in ways that used to be dealt with by the "dead" half?



Like the entry so far though, vo

cant even sign my own name
vp

a very good article, in as far as it goes. unfortunately, it does not go far enough. it completely ignores the fact that the brain is made up of a number of layers, from the brainstem up, each newer than the last, each performing it's own set of functions. due to this, you have attributed complete control of certain functions to the left or right hemispheres, which are actually mainly derived from these older brain functions.

If you pop over to my website (via my userpage) and once there, change the url to point to file "thebrain.htm", then this contains a simplistic summary of the funtions of the different layers that might help in the production of this article.

One thing I would change: Can you put the link to the lobe diagram in the main entry rather than as a footnote? Sorry to give you even more work. Fantastic entry. Signed, Nightshade.

Hiya!

VP: Sorry about that; it seems to make sense to me at the time, but that paragraph does make b*gger all sense - I will change it later....

Left/right handedness - completely forgot it; will add later

xyroth: I deliberately left that issue out, as I'm not really talking about the functional physiology and the neuroanatomy of the brain, but the psychological functionality and its associations with various areas/sides. I'd rather not put it in in any great detail, as I was planning to write another entry on that anyway... please leave me some other material to work with! I'll give it a mention - but I don't want to get too far into the topic

Nightshade: I'm not sure how I'd fit it into the main body... but I'll have a look

Thanks for the comments!

Futher comments, as always, will be gratefully received!

Stay ,
WD

Excellent article, if only my brain worked well enough to understand it all

This isn't really my field, but I think I can follow all that you said (with the suggestions mentioned above) so it seems to be at the right level for me.

Ok, as I've got to find something wrong with every entry I comment on...

"La belle différence" ( Double f, & I think you might have to use e´ )


whisky

Hiya!

Changes and additions abound:

>added the halves footnote into the main body of the text
>added a bit on how one half can take over when the other half has been removed
>added a bit on the 6 layers
>changed the paragraph that really did make b*gger all sense so that it makes a bit more sense
>changed the French spelling
>lobe diagram footnote is now in the main body of text
>added handedness

Phew!

Thanks for the comments!

Any further comments, as always, will be gratefully received!

Stay ,
WD

Good Entry!

Nice one WD !
vp

Thanks

Any further comments, as always, will be gratefully receieved!

Stay ,
WD

Definitely an interesting and informative entry.

I heard somewhere that a possible reason people are left handed is that they are part of twins, one of whom 'disappeared' early in the pregnancy. However, I can't remember the source, so it would probably be unwise to include it.

I've heard of lefies, but not of righties - did you extrapolate one from the other?

Hiya!

Yep; well, lefty and righty have been terms I have always used for left-handed and right-handed, and I think they sound a lot cuter

I'm glad you like it (are you really a ? Do you really )

Thanks again!

Any further comments, as always; gratefully received!

Stay ,
WD

There's an entry on handedness, why don't you link to it?
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A578766
and left handedness
http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/A625501

Done!

Clean forgot to search for related entries (the first one is unedited and exactly the same to the edited second one, so I've only put the one on left handedness in)

Thanks for reminding me

Further comments, as always; gratefully received!

Stay ,
WD

groovy.

What follows is constructive sarcasm. Which part of the brain contols how you use commas? This piece, while interesting and informative, contains many unnecessary commas. It also contains tense errors, disjointed sentences and incomplete sentences.
If you are happy, okay.
If you would like specifics, I will provide.
Good subject.

Yeah, I know "controls". Which side of the brain controls typing faster than you can see?

Hiya!

I've got to give the sub-editor *some* work to do...

I'll leave it as it is - as it stands, I have no time to pick through the text grammatically - I have a very important exam in just over a week (see my journal for more details...), so as you may guess, I can't really type too accurately at the moment as my hands are shaking far too much, and the overuse of commas is probably a reflection of the immense stress that I am under at the moment...

Or the fact that I am female, and therefore my comprehension and understanding of language in the linear sense is a bit suspect

I'm glad you like the content!

Any further comments, as always, gratefully received!

Stay ,
WD