Evolution of brain and language.
In this chapter evolutionary changes in the human brain that are relevant to language are reviewed. Most of what is known involves assessments of the relative sizes of brain regions. Overall brain size is associated with some key behavioral features relevant to language, including complexity of the social environment and the degree of conceptual complexity. Prefrontal cortical and temporal lobe areas relevant to language appear to have increased disproportionately. Areas relevant to language production and perception have changed less dramatically. The extent to which these changes were a consequence specifically of language versus other behavioral adaptations is a good question, but the process may best be viewed as a complex adaptive system, whereby cultural learning interacts with biology iteratively over time to produce language. Overall, language appears to have adapted to the human brain more so than the reverse.
Department of Anthropology, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA. toms@indiana.edu
P Thomas
PT
Schoenemann
D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception; D005075:Biological Evolution; D001921:Brain / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D007360:Intelligence / Q000502:physiology; D007802:Language; D009929:Organ Size; D011323:Primates / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000502:physiology