Cover not available
Part of
How the Brain Got Language – Towards a New Road Map
Edited by Michael A. Arbib
[Benjamins Current Topics 112] 2020
► pp. 370–387

The comparative neuroprimatology 2018 (CNP-2018) road map for research on How the Brain Got Language

| University of California at San Diego
| Universidad Católica de Chile
| Universität Zürich
| University of Auckland
| Institut des Sciences Cognitives Marc Jeannerod – CNRS
| Georgia State University
| Freie Universität Berlin
| Kyoto University
| Brandeis University
| Indiana University
| University of California at San Diego
| Glendon College of York University
| Indiana University
| Hunan University
| University of California at San Diego
| Hunan University
| Emory University
| Italian National Research Council, CNR
| Nicolaus Copernicus University
| Newcastle University

We present a new road map for research on “How the Brain Got Language” that adopts an EvoDevoSocio perspective and highlights comparative neuroprimatology – the comparative study of brain, behavior and communication in extant monkeys and great apes – as providing a key grounding for hypotheses on the last common ancestor of humans and monkeys (LCA-m) and chimpanzees (LCA-c) and the processes which guided the evolution LCA-m → LCA-c → protohumans → H. sapiens. Such research constrains and is constrained by analysis of the subsequent, primarily cultural, evolution of H. sapiens which yielded cultures involving the rich use of language.

Keywords: brain evolution, cultural evolution, EvoDevoSocio, language-ready brain, language evolution, neurolinguistics, neuroprimatology, primate communication, protolanguage, social interaction
Article outline
  • An overall perspective
  • Aspects of language to be explained
    • Language is a special form of communication
      • Lexicon and grammar
      • The endless aboutness of language
    • Social structure and the motivation to converse
    • Action, gesture and language
  • Methodologies
    • Neurophysiology and comparative neuroanatomy
    • Behavior, social structure and communication
    • Archeology
    • High-level theory
    • Modeling and mechanism
    • Genetics
  • Road map preliminaries
    • Establishing the “Stages”
    • In search of precise terminology
    • Beyond the primates
  • The CNP-2018 road map
    • Capabilities of LCA-m
    • Capabilities of LCA-c
    • Hominins prior to Homo sapiens
    • Post-biological evolution in Homo sapiens
  • Envoi
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
Published online: 11 August 2020
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/bct.112.23arb
References
*Aboitiz, F. (2018) Voice, gesture and working memory in the emergence of speech. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 70–85. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Arbib, M. A.
(2012) How the Brain Got Language: The Mirror System Hypothesis. New York & Oxford: Oxford University Press. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Arbib, M. A. (2018a) Computational Challenges of evolving the language-ready brain: 1. From Manual Action to Protosign. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 7–21. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Arbib, M. A. (2018b) Computational Challenges of evolving the language-ready brain: 2. Building towards neurolinguistics. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 22–37. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Burkart, J. M., Guerreiro Martins, E. M., Miss, F., & Zürcher, Y. (2018) From sharing food to sharing information. Cooperative breeding and language evolution. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 136–150. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Byrne, R. W., & Russon, A. E.
(1998) Learning by imitation: a hierarchical approach. Behav Brain Sci, 21(5), 667–684; discussion 684–721. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Byrne, R. W., & Whiten, A.
(1988) Machiavellian Intelligence: Social expertise and the evolution of intellect in monkeys, apes, and humans (1 ed.). Oxford: Claredon Press.Google Scholar
*Corballis, M. C. (2018) Mental travels and the cognitive basis of language. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 353–370.Google Scholar
Dehaene, S., Pegado, F., Braga, L. W., Ventura, P., Filho, G. N., Jobert, A., … Cohen, L.
(2010) How Learning to Read Changes the Cortical Networks for Vision and Language. Science, 330(6009), 1359–1364. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Dubreuil, B., & Henshilwood, C. S.
(2013) Archeology and the language-ready brain. Language and Cognition, 5(2–3), 251–260. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Kaas, J.
(Ed.) (2017) Evolution of Nervous Systems (Second Edition; in 4 volumes): Elsevier.Google Scholar
*Myowa, M. (2018) The Evolutionary Roots of Human Imitation, Action Understanding and Symbols. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 183–199. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Petkov, C. I., & Jarvis, E. D.
(2012) Birds, primates, and spoken language origins: behavioral phenotypes and neurobiological substrates. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience, 4, 12. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Pustejovsky, J. (2018) From Actions to Events: Communicating through Language and Gesture. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 289–317. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Putt, S., & Wijeakumar, S. (2018) Tracing the evolutionary trajectory of verbal working memory with neuro-archaeology. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 272–288. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Rilling, J. K.
(2014) Comparative primate neurobiology and the evolution of brain language systems. Current Opinion in Neurobiology, 28, 10–14. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Russon, A. (2018) Pantomime and imitation in great apes: Implications for reconstructing the evolution of language. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 200–215. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Schoenemann, P. T. (2018) The evolution of enhanced conceptual complexity and of Broca’s area: Language preadaptations. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 336–351. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Semendeferi, K. (2018) Why do we want to talk? Evolution of neural substrates of emotion and social cognition. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 102–120. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Sinha, C. (2018) Praxis, symbol and language: developmental, ecological and linguistic issues. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 239–255. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Stout, D. (2018) Archaeology and the evolutionary neuroscience of language: the technological pedagogy hypothesis. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 256–271. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Volterra, V., Capirci, O., Rinaldi, P., & Sparaci, L. (2018) From action to spoken and signed language through gesture: some basic developmental issues for a discussion on the evolution of the human language-ready brain. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 216-238. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Wacewicz, S., & Żywiczyński, P. (2018) Language origins: The platform of trust, cooperation, and turn-taking. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 167–182. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
*Wilson, B., & Petkov, C. I. (2018) From evolutionarily conserved frontal regions for sequence processing to human innovations for syntax. Interaction Studies, 19(1–2), 318–335. DOI logoGoogle Scholar
Cited by

Cited by 1 other publications

KERİMOĞLU, Caner
2022. Dilin Kökeni Arayışları-5: Beyin ve Dil. Dil Araştırmaları 16:30 ► pp. 21 ff. DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 15 april 2024. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.