100 A Programmer’s Guide to the Mind
seen physically within the structure of the brain. I have mentioned that
automatic Mercy thought is located within the right temporal lobe. I
suggest that automatic Perceiver processing occurs higher up, in what is
called the right parietal lobe.
This region of the cortex is essential for processing connections
between individual experiences. As one author states, “dealing with the
spatial relations of objects is believed to be a right parietal function.” “The
right parietal zone is specialized for processing the spatial characteristics of
sensory input.” 2 Damage here impairs this ability: “Spatial neglect on
drawing and constructional apraxia [an inability to build with objects]A
correlates with right parietal damage.” 4
As long as the flow of Mercy experiences remains fairly predictable,
Perceiver thought can „watch‟ passively through the mental window.
However, when situations are twisted or incomplete, then Perceiver
strategy must manipulate connections in order to rearrange Mercy
experiences or remind Mercy thought of experiences which can complete
the puzzle. It is during these types of situations that damage to automatic
Perceiver strategy becomes most evident: “Right parietal [damaged]
patients are impaired at recognizing familiar objects from unfamiliar
angles.” “Identifying an incomplete representation of a face or object is
especially sensitive to right parietal damage.” 2
Neurology tells us that the right parietal lobe of the brain is strongly
interconnected with the dorsolateral [top half] right frontal cortex. This
suggests that the right dorsolateral frontal cortex contains the internal
world for Perceiver thought. Unfortunately, because most neurological
papers treat the right and left dorsolateral frontal cortices as a single system,
it makes it difficult to distinguish between the two. Some specific evidence,
though, does exist. For instance, it has been found that “right frontal and
right frontocentral patients were significantly inferior in the ease of
production of drawings.” 4 In other words, patients with a damaged internal
Perceiver world lose the ability to create and manipulate mental objects.
A Information enclosed in brackets within a quote is added by me for the
sake of clarity. It is not part of the original quote.