32.2164, Review: Cognitive Science; Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics: Arbib (2020)
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Subject: 32.2164, Review: Cognitive Science; Neurolinguistics; Psycholinguistics: Arbib (2020)
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Date: Thu, 24 Jun 2021 18:49:37
From: Pamela Villar González [pamela.villar.gonzalez at psych.uw.edu.pl]
Subject: How the Brain Got Language – Towards a New Road Map
Discuss this message:
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Book announced at http://linguistlist.org/issues/31/31-2707.html
EDITOR: Michael A. Arbib
TITLE: How the Brain Got Language – Towards a New Road Map
SERIES TITLE: Benjamins Current Topics 112
PUBLISHER: John Benjamins
YEAR: 2020
REVIEWER: Pamela Villar González
SUMMARY
This collection of papers (“How the brain got language: Towards a new road
map”) edited by Michael A. Arbib offers an in-depth understanding of a new
multidisciplinary approach to how we, humans, got language. Starting from the
“old maps” that is to say, the old models, the volume goes through
evolutionary and comparative approaches including and analyzing emotion,
socialization, imitation, pantomime, tool-making, meaning, and the emerging of
grammar to create a new model about the evolution of language. This new model
has taken into account all of the milestones described from the perspective of
the different disciplines, creating a comprehensive road map for studying the
evolution of language.
The volume is organized in several sections: it starts with an introduction
explaining the different approaches and ends with a section entitled “The Road
Map”, where the “Comparative Neuroprimatology 2018 Road Map” is presented.
Every section in the volume has several subsections, each of which consists of
a formal paper that can be read alone, independent of the other papers in the
section. At the end of every paper we find a fixed epigraph “Toward a new
roadmap” that agglutinates the key factors of the paper that will contribute
to the final Road Map.
After an introduction , the volume presents the section “An Old Road Map to
Draw Upon” with two subsections on the “computational challenges of evolving
the language-ready brain”, both by the editor of the volume. In the first
paper, Michael A. Arbib focuses on the study of macaque brain models and how
they can give us a better understanding of how language has evolved. In the
second paper, he presents the need for more neurolinguistic studies and for
integration of the currently accepted models regarding innatism and the
acquisition of language.
The core of the book “Starting From the Macaque” presents three papers, all of
them focused as the title suggests on the models made through the study of
macaques. The titles of the papers are explicit about the topic addressed:
“Reflections on the differential organization of mirror neuron systems for
hand and mouth and their role in the evolution of communication in primates”
by Gino Coudé and Pier Francesco Ferrari. This first subsection inquires into
the overlapping of the mirror system network related to hand control and
grasping and the network of mouth/face control.
“Plasticity, innateness, and the path to language in the primate brain:
Comparing macaque, chimpanzee and human circuitry for visuomotor integration”
by Erin Hecht. In this subsection, language is studied from the
progressive-adaptative point of view not just comparing the macaque,
chimpanzee, and human neurobiology but focusing on the integration of the
visuomotor and manual action and how much can be already encoded through
evolution driving us to the “innateness”.
“Voice, gesture, and working memory in the emergence of speech” by Francisco
Aboitiz. In the previous subsections, the importance of the visual and motor
system for the development of language has been widely addressed. Here, the
author highlights the importance of the working memory (sometimes also called
“short-time memory”) that was expanded thanks to the strengthening of the
auditory-vocal articulatory network.
The section “Bringing in Emotion” still reflects the perspective of
comparative neuroprimatology and includes the following articles:
“Relating the evolution of Music-Readiness and Language-Readiness within the
context of comparative neuroprimatology” by Uwe Seifert. Music, like language,
is a multimodal phenomenon of interaction that has evolved from non-human
primates. Presenting three hypotheses the author relates music and language
through the readiness of the brain for it.
“Why do we want to talk?: Evolution of neural substrates of emotion and social
cognition” by Katerina Semendeferi. In this subsection the author analyses the
evolution of the limbic system and the changes in the functions related to it
(motivation, attention, inhibition, and detection of emotional stimuli among
others). The paper states that the reason why humans want to talk may be
related to the connection between cognitive and emotional processes. The
arguments are supported as well by neurodevelopmental disorders in humans that
affect both language and sociability.
“Mind the gap – moving beyond the dichotomy between intentional gestures and
emotional facial and vocal signals of nonhuman primates” by Katja Liebal and
Linda Oña. Here the authors address the lack of research in emotional
expressions in our closest relatives and how further studies on this topic
will bring us more valuable information for a comprehensive model of the
evolution of human language.
In the section “Turn-Taking and Prosociality” the following topics are
addressed:
“From sharing food to sharing information: Cooperative breeding and language
evolution” by Judith M. Burkart, Eloisa Guerreiro Martins, Fabia Miss, and
Yvonne Zürcher. According to the authors, language relies on the motivation
for sharing information, which implies that it is not enough to have the
cognitive abilities to develop language; also needed is the interest/necessity
of the interchange of information.
“Social manipulation, turn-taking, and cooperation in apes: Implications for
the evolution of language-based interaction in humans” by Federico Rossano.
The author explores the motivation required for the interchange of
information. According to the data presented about the evidence of social
manipulation during cooperation in non-human primates, it seems that prosocial
motivations would not be the only reason for language evolution.
“Language origins: Fitness consequences, platform of trust, cooperation, and
turn-taking” by Sławomir Wacewicz and Przemysław Żywiczyński. In this section,
focusing again on the turn-taking process the authors present the concept of
“platform of trust” advancing the idea that the turn-taking is based on this
trustful environment and not just on the cooperative and not necessarily
communicative turn-taking system found in primates.
The next section entitled “Imitation, Pantomime and Development” develops
these topics:
“The evolutionary roots of human imitation, action understanding, and symbols”
by Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi. The author proposes a model highlighting the
difference between the process of visual-motor information by chimpanzees and
humans. Through this model, the author focuses on what is unique for humans
(such as the visual attention to the face) and can drive us to the
“language-ready brain”.
“Pantomime and imitation in great apes: Implications for reconstructing the
evolution of language” by Anne E. Russon. This paper evaluates two key
contributors to language evolution in nonhuman hominids: pantomime and action
imitation.
“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” by Virginia Volterra, Olga Capirci, Pasquale Rinaldi and
Laura Sparaci. In this paper, the authors review the evidence (on children
between 6 and 36 months of age) for the importance of the interaction with
caregivers in the development of communication and its multimodality component
(gestures, words, and signs). Furthermore, they point out analogous findings
on ape communicative behavior.
“Praxis, symbol, and language: Developmental, ecological and linguistic
issues” by Chris Sinha. The author distinguishes the concept of a
“symbol-ready brain” from the already mentioned language-ready brain.
According to the authors, the concept does not imply the immediate ability to
symbolically communicate or the “Evolutionary Modern Languages”, just that the
brain is ready for the process.
The section “Action, Toolmaking, And Language” includes:
“Archaeology and the evolutionary neuroscience of language: The technological
pedagogy hypothesis” by Dietrich Stout. The author remarks on the importance
of adding the context information to the comparative approach to language
evolution .
“Tracing the evolutionary trajectory of verbal working memory with
neuro-archaeology” by Shelby S. Putt and Sobanawartiny Wijeakumar. The authors
explore from a neuro-archaeology perspective the overlap between working
memory networks involved in language and Early Stone Age toolmaking behaviors
through optical neuroimaging.
“From actions to events: Communicating through language and gesture” by James
Pustejovsky. The author argues that the recognition and conceptualization of
events are unique to humans and that during this process, complex linguistic
expressions emerge from holophrastic units.
The last section before the “Road Map” is “Meaning and Grammar Emerging”:
“From evolutionarily conserved frontal regions for sequence processing to
human innovations for syntax” by Benjamin Wilson and Christopher I. Petkov.
Authors argue that the networks which support some sequence learning abilities
that appear in other species are conserved in humans, and in these areas,
language is processed as well.
“The evolution of enhanced conceptual complexity and Broca’s area: Language
preadaptations” by P. Thomas Schoenemann. The author explores the pre-existing
brain circuits that after evolution trigger two core characteristics of human
language: conceptual complexity and sequence processing. The paper focuses on
these processes through the fossil record of brain evolution and the
archaeological record.
“Mental travels and the cognitive basis of language” by Michael C. Corballis.
The author presents the concept of mental travel both in time and space. This
characteristic is shown somehow in some nonhuman animals. However, the author
argues that displacement is unique to humans. Based on these, the paper
presents the idea of mental time travel co-evolving with the development of
language, being the mental time travel capacity prior to (modern) language.
In the last section of the book, the “Road Map” is introduced and explained:
The comparative neuroprimatology 2018 (CNP-2018) road map for research on How
the Brain Got Language by Michael A. Arbib, Francisco Aboitiz, Judith M.
Burkart, Michael C. Corballis, Gino Coudé, Erin Hecht, Katja Liebal, Masako
Myowa-Yamakoshi, James Pustejovsky, Shelby S. Putt, Federico Rossano, Anne E.
Russon, P. Thomas Schoenemann, Uwe Seifert, Katerina Semendeferi, Chris Sinha,
Dietrich Stout, Virginia Volterra, Sławomir Wacewicz and Benjamin Wilson. This
chapter agglutinates all the presented approaches, views, and data in order to
give a comprehensive model of the evolution of language.
EVALUATION
“How the Brain Got Language – Towards a New Road Map” presents a compelling
collection of papers about the process of acquiring language sorted in a quite
new fashion, including some key points like the Turn-Taking section that has
been systematically ignored in the study of the development of language, even
though recently it is getting more attention.
The “road map” drawn from many disciplines presents data from primates and
computer models in formal but understandable from, even for non-experts in the
field.
To my view, this is not a reference book for a specific discipline, but a
resource book for supporting the multidisciplinary approach to the study of
language and its mechanisms. The comprehension of the book requires some
minimal knowledge about the language process. However, it could be used as
well by students or researchers coming from other disciplines not strictly
focused on Language (Psychology, Archeology, Physiology, or Computer Science
among others) to have an overview of the topic.
As I see it, this volume provides a fascinating and well-connected mix of
approaches to the development of the faculty of language in humans; it will
be useful from the last courses of undergraduate programs to the explorations
of senior researchers . It provides a new perspective on language research and
makes clear the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach. It makes clear as
well the need for the integration into the new models of developmental and
biological information about both humans and apes, taking into account social
and cultural context without forgetting the computation challenges.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Pamela Villar González works as a fellow researcher at the Department of
Neurodevelopmental Psychology at the University of Warsaw (Poland). Her
previous works are in diverse fields like neuroscience (memory, the study of
biomarkers in healthy aging and dementia, and sleep), and psycholinguistics
(brain lateralization of language, whistled languages). Apart from research,
she has taught Spanish language (Ruhr Universität Bochum, and University of
Duisburg-Essen (Germany)) and trained medical students (Ruhr Universität
Bochum) in Neuropsychology and Master students in different behavioral and
neuroimaging techniques (MRI, TMS-EEG, and eye-tracking among others). Her
research interests include as well language pathologies, speech science,
bilingualism, communication, literature, culture, machine learning, in
vivo-imaging methods, open science, and science communication (she has created
the “Pamdemia Científica – Scientific Pamdemic” a science communication
project through Facebook and Instagram).
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