ABSTRACT
The classical way of diagramming the human cerebral cortex indicates that it processes sensory information coming in at the back and sends it forward to the ‘‘pre-central’’ motor system. In fact, all information that is perceived is expected by the brain. A newborn brain may be only one third the size of an adult brain, but it has all the structures, all the nerve cell nuclei and fibre tracts that a neuroanatomist could want to find. Biologists know about the importance of rhythm in both intrinsic coordination of the individual and in communication, formation of social groups. In Edinburgh our Computational Linguists seem to have lost all interest in communication. The nuclei in the brainstem that motivate voluntary action and attention project up into the cerebral cortex and they modulate the activity of the cortical cells, changing their communication with each other and with the rest of the brain.
