Communication Needs

What percent of our brain is used for communication?

I've heard once that the reason our brains are so complex is for complex communication(everything from visual cues to complex conversation and reading/writing). What percentage is actually used for this end?

Public Comments

1. Interesting question, but I don't know that any serious researcher(s) have ever tried to answer it. One difficulty would be deciding exactly what "communication" means in this context. For example, we have over 40 facial muscles - should we count them in because facial expression CAN communicate emotions, etc.? Likewise sometimes large areas of the body are involved in sending non-verbal (body language) messages. Of course we should include the areas of the brain that receive noises, translate them into language and then interprets the meaning of of the words. In response to non-verbal signals some parts of my visual cortex will be receiving and making sense of those signals. And so and so on. Then we'd need to know the ACTUAL differences in brain activity between face-to-face communication, speaking on the phone and reading a letter, as compared with what we might logically assume the differences might be. Quite a job, isn't it. .