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Reuse in the brain and elsewhere

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 October 2010

Björn Lindblom
Björn Lindblom
Affiliation:
Department of Linguistics, Stockholm University, 10691 Stockholm, Sweden. [email protected]://www.ling.su.se
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Abstract

Chemistry, genetics, physics, and linguistics all present instances of reuse. I use the example of how behavioral constraints may have contributed to the emergence of phonemic reuse. Arising from specific facts about speech production, perception, and learning, such constraints suggest that combinatorial reuse is domain-specific. This implies that it would be more prudent to view instances of neural reuse not as reflecting a “fundamental organizational principle,” but as a fortuitous set of converging phenomena.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 33 , Issue 4 , August 2010 , pp. 282 - 283
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

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