More recent work has shown that the formation of microgyria throws the pattern of neural connections between the language centres and the rest of the brain into confusion.

ECONOMIST: Reading minds | The

Its reaction with the odour molecules changes a detector's electrical resistance, and this signal is fed into a neural net (the closest that computer technology has got to imitating the pattern-recognising abilities of networks of nerve cells) to work out what is being smelt.

ECONOMIST: Wine-tasting will never be the same again