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How we think, “scorpion” from the Greek, balancing pushed whales fast

Q: How do we think? It’s not like we really hear ourselves — its just there, like when we read or write. And how do we see pictures in our mind? (Rachel, Kankakee, Illinois)

A: You almost answer the question. Thinking springs into mind much as concepts do as we read and write words. We think largely in words — at least, the more abstract forms of thinking. We probably see pictures in our mind much as we see pictures through our eyes — relying on memories to flesh out an image.

A thinking human brain viewed through magnetic resonance imaging [© Scott Camazine 2003, used with permission]

Language is the key. "Without syntax — the orderly arrangement of verbal ideas — we would be little more clever than a chimpanzee," writes William Calvin in "The Emergence of Intelligence", Scientific American, October 1994.

By ‘syntax’ Calvin means an order such as "that" imposes in the nursery rhyme: "This is the farmer sowing the corn/ That kept the cock that crowed in the morn/ ...That lay in the house that Jack built." Even little kids instantly grasp how "that" in the poem keeps changing the rhyme’s meaning.

Think of life without syntax. No planning, abstract ideas, reflecting, playing. This happened to Joseph, an 11-year old deaf boy. He couldn’t hear the spoken language and had never been exposed to fluent sign language. So, he didn’t learn syntax early during childhood.

"Joseph saw, distinguished, categorized, used... but he could not, it seemed, go much beyond this, hold abstract ideas in mind, reflect, play, plan. He seemed completely literal — unable to juggle images or hypotheses or possibilities, unable to enter an imaginative or figurative realm.... He seemed, like an animal, or an infant, to be stuck in the present..." wrote neurologist Oliver Sacks in Seeing Voices (University of California Press, 1989).

The language feature (syntax) that orders words into ideas seems closely related to our ability to plan. Planning orders future events as syntax orders words.

Syntax may have evolved from an action like hitting a nail with a hammer — the sort of thing that apes do poorly but we do well. This kind of feat involves planning to get it right first because after you start. Bam! The act’s done. Ballistic motion requires planning and that ability may have evolved into language and thinking.

We also build using past thought scraps. We roam around, picking up this and that, fitting, discarding, until we string together a new idea.

Further Reading:

Calvin, William H., A Brief History of the Mind: from Apes to Intellect and Beyond (Oxford University Press, 2004)

“Scorpion” from the Greek

Q: Where do scorpions get their name? Sara, Salinas, California

A: From the Greek, skorpios, which means "something sharp or stinging."

By the way, scorpions figure big in constellation lore. There’s a constellation called Scorpius in the southern sky below Orion.

The Scorpius constellation coils its tail around the Milky Way, Hubble image. [NASA, STScI, Scorpius outline by April Holladay.]

In Greek mythology, Orion boasted he was the greatest hunter in the Universe. When Hera, Zeus’ wife, heard the braggart, she sicced a poisonous scorpion on Orion. "Kill," she hissed. Orion fought the creature for days and nights. The wily scorpion crept close to the weary man during an unguarded moment, whipped her poison-laded tail, and killed him.

Further Surfing:

Michigan State University: Viewing Scorpius by Shane Horvatin

Bullfinch, Thomas, Bullfinch’s Mythology, Thomas Y. Crowell Company, New York.

Balancing pushed whales fast

Q: In your article on whales and cows, you said that whales evolved fast from land to marine animal. Why so fast? Kevin, Penryn, California

Top: Side view of a modern bushbaby (left) and dolphin (right) inner ears. Images adjusted for size differences between the two animals. The comparison shows how tiny the ocean-dwelling dolphin's inner ear is compared with a land-dwelling creature's. Note, in particular, how small the semicircular canal arcs (top of the inner ear) are for the dolphin.

Bottom: Side view of a land-dwelling early whale [50 million years ago, Ichthyolestes] (left) and a somewhat later [45 million year old] ocean-dwelling early whale [Indocetus] (right) inner ears. The comparison shows the evolution of the shrinking inner ear as the animal moved to the sea. Images reconstructed from computed tomography scans and adjusted for body size differences between the two animals. Each inner ear would easily fit on a penny.

Image by Fred Spoor using Voxel-man

A: A fast change in the animal’s sense of balance (located in the same place — the inner ear — as hearing) triggered the fast evolution.

The whale ancestor was a wolf-sized land mammal (Pakicetidae) that may have fed while wading in shallow streams. We have found its fossilized bones in Pakistan and northwest India.

A peculiar thing happened — Pakicetidae inner ears got smaller and denser. The sizes of the inner-ear semicircular canals affect how sensitive to motion the inner ear is, says Fred Spoor, evolutionary professor at University College London. As these arcs got smaller, the ear became less sensitive to head rotations. This opened the way to the ocean.

A less-sensitive inner ear could tolerate wild gyrations necessary to hunt and live in the ocean. The proto whale could dive, rock, and spin freely without seasickness or dizziness. Also, a denser ear could better hear underwater calls and, eventually, whale songs.

Further Surfing:

WonderQuest: Cow kinship

Northeastern Ohio Universities: Pakicetidae hearing by Hans Thewissen

(Answered April 9, 2004)