title: [They thought; therefore, they spoke].
abstract: All functions that characteristically define each form of life are the consequence of the unpredictable process of evolution. The appearance around 300,000 years ago of a complex system of language allowed the homo sapiens to verbally express his thoughts, feelings and experiences in a narrative manner. Thus began the great and continuous development of knowledge and the subsequent post-biological improvement of cognitive functions as a consequence of the stimulation of brain plasticity. This complex process vas not rapid. Important structural and functional craneofacial and pharyngo-laryngeal changes were necessary. Some were already present four million years ago in the australopitecus and became more efficient in homo erectus to reach the definite dimensions of modern humans 125,000 years ago in the homo sapiens-sapiens. From then on a continuous, productive and interactive relationship between the ability to think and the capacity to speak was established. New anonymous ideas invent their corresponding words which, in turn, create more complex sequential thoughts. The fundamental contribution of language in the development of human intelligence raises the question fo which of the two functions preceded the other or whether they both evolved simultaneously. Is it possible to assume that if the pharyngo-laryngeal structures ad not evolved at all, the brain would have invented another type of language?
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Portera Sánchez
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003142:Communication; D015186:Hominidae / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D013850:Thinking