Is speech learning 'gated' by the social brain?
I advance the hypothesis that the earliest phases of language acquisition -- the developmental transition from an initial universal state of language processing to one that is language-specific -- requires social interaction. Relating human language learning to a broader set of neurobiological cases of communicative development, I argue that the social brain 'gates' the computational mechanisms involved in human language learning.
Kuhl
Patricia K
PK
Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA. pkkuhl@u.washington.edu
D000818:Animals; D001288:Attention; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D007804:Language Development; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*; D014706:Verbal Learning / Q000502:physiology*