Unravelling Bolero: An Analysis

Within the long span of the history of mankind talented individuals generated innovative ideas and new forms of arts on behalf of humanity. Despite the crucial importance of the role of genius people, their artistic creativity and the source of their talents have been always mysterious. Though in ancient times they were considered as gifts given by gods, nowadays scientists reveal special brain mechanisms underlying the sophisticated phenomenon. Neurologists have noticed that after the damage in the left hemisphere of the brain some people develop striking creative abilities. While having difficulties in constructing fluent speech (as language is lateralized in the left hemisphere of the brain) the visual and musical abilities become active
Nevertheless, Ann Adams’s case reveals another aspect of human language unknown to many of us. In their podcast “Unravelling Bolero” about Ann Adams’s case the RadioLab team hosted Bruce Miller, a neurologist who has lifelong experience in treating patients with PPA (2012, June 18). According to the hypothesis supported in the podcast human brain consists of series of circuits connected to each other. Some of the circuits we have in our brains, like language, are dominant and others are subordinate. Dominant circuits are responsible for turning off the subordinate ones to balance their work and keep harmony in our minds. Thus, language acts as a coordinator of human consciousness and restricts some functions of it as daydreaming or visual thinking. Nonetheless, when our left frontal cortex fails to work and we lose our linguistic abilities visual, creative and imaginative parts of the brain become active. Since language is impaired, there is no control for human visual representation and human consciousness is flooded with images, pictures or sounds. That is why many patients like AA or Maurice Ravel become visually or musically obsessed. Other patients, on the other hand, may simply repeat some basic behaviors for hundreds of times like pouring water or eating (RadioLab, 2012, June
Nicholson rejects the existence of the reptilian part finding it inappropriate for explanation of brain evolution and for the description of the phenomenon in general. He is convinced that the RadioLab team simply have made some exaggerations to unveil the nature of human language to tell a “great story” to the listeners. From his point of view, Miller’s description of the disease is correct as he has invaluable experience in treating PPA patients. Anyhow, he does not succeed to highlight the core essence of the phenomenon, that is the biological basis of the relationship between language lose and the boosting creativity of human mind (Nicholson,