Ahora, leyendo este artículo sobre los efectos cerebrales de la alfabetización en las funciones cerebrales (Stanislas Dehaene, "Inside the Letterbox: How Literacy Transforms the Human Brain") puede que se resuelva parcialmente el misterio. El área cerebral dedicada originalmente al reconocimiento de caras se me ha visto desplazada o desbordada por un exceso de lectura cuando era pequeño, e incluso ahora supongo.
Cito:
Most crucially for the neuronal recycling hypothesis, however, was our determination that reading did not merely have a positive effect on the brain. Exactly as predicted, we also observed a small but significant cortical competition effect, precisely at the site of the letterbox area. For the first time, our study revealed which shapes triggered a response at this site prior to learning to read. In illiterates, faces and objects caused intense activity in this region—and, strikingly, the response to faces diminished with literacy. It was highest in illiterates, and quickly dropped in ex-illiterates and literates. This cortical competition effect, whereby word responses increased while face responses decreased, was found only in the left hemisphere. In the symmetrical fusiform area of the right hemisphere, face responses increased with reading. Thus, at least part of the right-hemisphere specialization for faces, which has been repeatedly observed in dozens of fMRI studies, arises from the fact that these neuroimaging studies always involved educated adults. Obviously, the acquisition of reading involves the reconversion of evolutionary older cortical territory, and text competes with faces for a place in the cortex.
Así que aclaro, si no les saludo a Vds. no es que les haya retirado el saludo, ni que no los vea. Lo que pasa es que igual no me entero de quiénes son. Ahora que si son tan amables de ponerse el nombre escrito en la frente, seguro que les reconoceré al momento.
—oOo—
