The article explores the context important for the analysis of Lotman’s talk at the seminar on the problem of semiogenesis and functional specialization of cerebral hemispheres as a model of intellectual processes, which was held in Tartu. Forty years later, the author analyses changes in the viewpoints on the proposed model, taking into account the data of experimental neuroscience. The article emphasizes the fundamental value and topicality of Yuri Lotman’s ideas on the production of meaning in individual and cross-cultural space