On 16 Jun 2006 23:11:06 -0700, "chadmaester"
<chad.d.johnson at gmail.com> wrote:
>How many neurons, on average, are used to make sense of a commonly-used
>(i.e., well-understood) word, just in a normal conversation, and
>without regard to visual or auditory processing? For instance, when you
>hear a word it makes you think of something else. That is what I am
>after.
What you ask cannot be answered because we do not understand the steps
used to process sounds into words into meanings and, especially, to
associate one idea of something related.
However we do know that what you describe involves many large regions
of the brain so that certainly many millions of cells would be
involved.
We can count the small number of cells involved in having a sound
"register" in the auditory region of the brain. However there is no
way even to begin to describe what is involved in producing the
reaction "I heard that!".
