Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri Lotman

Yuri Lotman (1922–1993) was a semiologist, literary critic, and cultural historian from Soviet Russia. He is credited with founding the multidisciplinary Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. As a cultural theorist and humanist, he was highly influential across many fields, but his contributions to theo...

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Main Author: Marco Sanna
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Eco-Vector 2025-04-01
Series:Consortium Psychiatricum
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Online Access:https://consortium-psy.com/jour/article/viewFile/15606/pdf
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author Marco Sanna
author_facet Marco Sanna
author_sort Marco Sanna
collection DOAJ
description Yuri Lotman (1922–1993) was a semiologist, literary critic, and cultural historian from Soviet Russia. He is credited with founding the multidisciplinary Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. As a cultural theorist and humanist, he was highly influential across many fields, but his contributions to theories about the brain as a semiotic system have often been overlooked. Topics such as the asymmetry of the brain hemispheres, the “untranslatable” specialization of their respective “languages”, interhemispheric dialogue, and the unity of consciousness were frequent subjects of discussion within the scientific community that formed around the multidisciplinary Tartu-Moscow (and Leningrad) group. Recently, scholars such as E. Andrews and T.V. Chernigovskaya have highlighted the influence and relevance of the “neurosemiotic” model proposed by Yu.M. Lotman in the late 1970s. However, our impression is that a fundamental aspect, which Yu.M. Lotman considered indispensable for the functioning of any “thinking system”, has been overlooked in the application of this model to contemporary studies of neurophysiology. This aspect is the intersemiotic translation device that Yu.M. Lotman calls the “semiotic boundary”. We can consider this as a “third” structure of intersection between the two hemispheres, which actively operates to translate specialized information systems reciprocally. In this paper, we will attempt to restore its significance according to an interpretation updated to the most recent discoveries in cognitive neuroscience.
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spelling doaj-art-066e61ac1ecd411bba0cb28f54c7650f2025-08-21T10:25:00ZengEco-VectorConsortium Psychiatricum2712-76722713-29192025-04-0161475410.17816/CP15606167Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri LotmanMarco Sanna0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2333-6714University of SassariYuri Lotman (1922–1993) was a semiologist, literary critic, and cultural historian from Soviet Russia. He is credited with founding the multidisciplinary Tartu-Moscow School of Semiotics. As a cultural theorist and humanist, he was highly influential across many fields, but his contributions to theories about the brain as a semiotic system have often been overlooked. Topics such as the asymmetry of the brain hemispheres, the “untranslatable” specialization of their respective “languages”, interhemispheric dialogue, and the unity of consciousness were frequent subjects of discussion within the scientific community that formed around the multidisciplinary Tartu-Moscow (and Leningrad) group. Recently, scholars such as E. Andrews and T.V. Chernigovskaya have highlighted the influence and relevance of the “neurosemiotic” model proposed by Yu.M. Lotman in the late 1970s. However, our impression is that a fundamental aspect, which Yu.M. Lotman considered indispensable for the functioning of any “thinking system”, has been overlooked in the application of this model to contemporary studies of neurophysiology. This aspect is the intersemiotic translation device that Yu.M. Lotman calls the “semiotic boundary”. We can consider this as a “third” structure of intersection between the two hemispheres, which actively operates to translate specialized information systems reciprocally. In this paper, we will attempt to restore its significance according to an interpretation updated to the most recent discoveries in cognitive neuroscience.https://consortium-psy.com/jour/article/viewFile/15606/pdfyuri lotmanhemispheric asymmetrymultimodal semioticssemiotic boundary
spellingShingle Marco Sanna
Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri Lotman
Consortium Psychiatricum
yuri lotman
hemispheric asymmetry
multimodal semiotics
semiotic boundary
title Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri Lotman
title_full Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri Lotman
title_fullStr Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri Lotman
title_full_unstemmed Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri Lotman
title_short Dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind: the neurosemiotics of Yuri Lotman
title_sort dialogical structure of the brain and the ternary system of the mind the neurosemiotics of yuri lotman
topic yuri lotman
hemispheric asymmetry
multimodal semiotics
semiotic boundary
url https://consortium-psy.com/jour/article/viewFile/15606/pdf
work_keys_str_mv AT marcosanna dialogicalstructureofthebrainandtheternarysystemofthemindtheneurosemioticsofyurilotman