From: Stuart, Ian (Ian.Stuart@woolpert.com)
Date: Fri Nov 04 2005 - 07:59:15 MST
>Whoa - I was seriously startled by the idea that other mammals might
>have brains with a different number of layers than ours. So I Googled.
> And what do you know? Some mammals don't have 6 layers.
>They have 7.
I stand corrected. My Google kung-fu is weak.
So, the apparent answer to the question of adding sensory modalities to
an existing human is that, since the cortex is accounted for by the
existing senses plus motor control, you would have to accept the loss of
cortical tissue to some other sense in order to make room for a new one,
and obviously the bandwidth required by the new sense would dictate the
area you would be required to forefeit. So the question then becomes,
which existing input stream is the least necessary for success in the
modern human environment? i.e. Which could we get rid of with the least
amount of impact on daily life? I don't seem to be using my sense of
smell very often . . .
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