Tom Breton wrote in message ...
>"Kenneth Collins" <k.p.collins at worldnet.att.net> writes:
>>> the argument that a larger overall brain size is correlated with
>> information-processing capacity is hard to defend because all things else
>> being proportional, because of the longer fibers necessary, an
overly-large
>> brain suffers a penalty in energy consumption and/or convergence
>> 'time'.
>>Convergence time... It's odd that we don't ever hear about that when
>science-popularizers are chortling that "women use both halves of
>their brains and men don't". (to accomplish specific tasks, but that
>usually goes unsaid)
100% of the brain is used 100% of the 'time'. [note: this's not the same as
saying 100% of the brain's information-processing capacity is used 100% of
the 'time'.] most of the 'time', convergence occurs in the 'easiest' way.
>>But anyways, local specialization makes me doubt the theory that large
>brain = large convergence time for tasks of interest.
it's not "local specialization", but experience ["practice"] that enables
"expert" informaqtion-processing speed. this happens be-cause the
system-configuration information is stored and retrieved in a way that's
exactly-analogous to the way that externally-relevant memory details are
stored and retrieved. the system configuration 'memories' are constructed
over relatively-long 'time' courses, through the doing of
information-processing work, and after they're constructed, they are invoked
of-a-piece, which makes the relatively-large instance of
information-processing commensurately-rapid. [commensurate to the prior
quantity of system-configuration work performed].
this's is some of what i addressed in my prior post, as is quoted below.
all things being proportionate, the smaller brain [at a limit of what's
in-there being sufficient], converges more-rapidly and consumes less energy
in doing so [which further augments information-processing power because
less 'time' has to be 'wasted' searching for and consuming 'food'].
the TD E/I-minimization that i write about is a form of 'making the brain as
small as practical, with respect to this or that information-processing
task, expressly to minimize such factors.
such minimization maximizes information-processing 'power'.
of course, all of this occurs in an extremely-dynamic way, which is why 100%
of the brain is used 100% of the 'time'.
k. p. collins
>>> [which is another viewport into the hyper-/hypo- trophy stuff. to
maintain
>> overall minimization of energy consumption, and overall 'timely'
>> convergence, requires a hypertophy-hypotrophy 'off-setting'. this, of
>> course, can be 'stretched' a bit if it's the case that an individual
>> experiences greater than 'normal' "leisure" ["leisure", here, is not
>> necessarily a state of "ease".]]
>>>--
>Tom Breton at panix.com, username tehom. http://www.panix.com/~tehom
