Page 53 - Mind Games The Aging Brain and How to Keep it Healthy

The Intelligent Mind • 37

According to Gardner in Frames of Mind, everyone can
aspire to master four main objectives:

1. Rhetoric—use of language to convince another individ-
ual that your opinion is correct

2. Mnemonic—use of language to remember other infor-
mation

3. Explanation—use of language for teaching and learning
4. Metalinguistic—use of language for analyzing previous
statements for clarification or correction

Mastery of language and its uses requires expert knowl-
edge and use of phonology (word sounds that interact), se-
mantics (the meaning of words), and syntax (rules of word
order to use as expected or changed to draw attention to a
particular idea or image). Individual elements of a task (in
this case, phonology, semantics, and syntax) may be local-
ized within a specific area of the brain. These elements and
their respective areas are activated in any number of combi-
nations to complete that task.
The specific areas designated for these three elements are
shown in the figure. These areas are referred to as Broca’s
area (linguistic production) and Wernicke’s area (compre-
hension of linguistics). The area for processing sign language
18
is located just below Wernicke’s area (see Figure 2-8).
These areas are not the only ones used for linguistics.
Marble-sized areas of neurons, primarily scattered through
the left temporal and parietal lobes, specialize in functions
such as nouns, individual rules of grammar, and production
of verbs. You might be interested to know what parts of the
brain exhibit the most activity when thinking and speaking
words.

S Musical Intelligence
Interest in music may be expressed in different forms: lis-
tening to music, performing music, and composing music.
While some people just “muddle through,” composers are