Get fulltext from our e-platform
How the Brain Got Language – Towards a New Road Map
How did humans evolve biologically so that our brains and social interactions could support language processes, and how did cultural evolution lead to the invention of languages (signed as well as spoken)? This book addresses these questions through comparative (neuro)primatology – comparative study of brain, behavior and communication in monkeys, apes and humans – and an EvoDevoSocio framework for approaching biological and cultural evolution within a shared perspective. Each chapter provides an authoritative yet accessible review from a different discipline: linguistics (evolutionary, computational and neuro), archeology and neuroarcheology, macaque neurophysiology, comparative neuroanatomy, primate behavior, and developmental studies. These diverse perspectives are unified by having each chapter close with a section on its implications for creating a new road map for multidisciplinary research. These implications include assessment of the pluses and minuses of the Mirror System Hypothesis as an “old” road map. The cumulative road map is then presented in the concluding chapter. Originally published as a special issue of Interaction Studies 19:1/2 (2018).
[Benjamins Current Topics, 112] 2020. vii, 393 pp.
Publishing status: Available
Published online on 31 July 2020
Published online on 31 July 2020
© John Benjamins
Table of Contents
- Introducing the Volume: “How the brain got language: Towards a new road map”Michael A. Arbib | pp. 1–6
- Computational challenges of evolving the language-ready brain: 1. From manual action to protosignMichael A. Arbib | pp. 7–21
- Computational challenges of evolving the language-ready brain: 2. Building towards neurolinguisticsMichael A. Arbib | pp. 22–37
- Reflections on the differential organization of mirror neuron systems for hand and mouth and their role in the evolution of communication in primatesGino Coudé and Pier Francesco Ferrari | pp. 38–53
- Plasticity, innateness, and the path to language in the primate brain: Comparing macaque, chimpanzee and human circuitry for visuomotor integrationErin Hecht | pp. 54–69
- Voice, gesture and working memory in the emergence of speechFrancisco Aboitiz | pp. 70–85
- Relating the evolution of Music-Readiness and Language-Readiness within the context of comparative neuroprimatologyUwe Seifert | pp. 86–101
- Why do we want to talk? Evolution of neural substrates of emotion and social cognitionKaterina Semendeferi | pp. 102–120
- Mind the gap – moving beyond the dichotomy between intentional gestures and emotional facial and vocal signals of nonhuman primatesKatja Liebal and Linda Oña | pp. 121–135
- From sharing food to sharing information: Cooperative breeding and language evolutionJudith Burkart, Eloisa Guerreiro Martins, Fabia Miss and Yvonne Zürcher | pp. 136–150
- Social manipulation, turn-taking and cooperation in apes: Implications for the evolution of language-based interaction in humansFederico Rossano | pp. 151–166
- Language origins: Fitness consequences, platform of trust, cooperation, and turn-takingSławomir Wacewicz and Przemysław Żywiczyński | pp. 167–182
- The evolutionary roots of human imitation, action understanding and symbolsMasako Myowa-Yamakoshi | pp. 183–199
- Pantomime and imitation in great apes: Implications for reconstructing the evolution of languageAnne E. Russon | pp. 200–215
- From action to spoken and signed language through gesture: Some basic developmental issues for a discussion on the evolution of the human language-ready brainVirginia Volterra, Olga Capirci, Pasquale Rinaldi and Laura Sparaci | pp. 216–238
- Praxis, symbol and language: Developmental, ecological and linguistic issuesChris Sinha | pp. 239–255
- Archaeology and the evolutionary neuroscience of language: The technological pedagogy hypothesisDietrich Stout | pp. 256–271
- Tracing the evolutionary trajectory of verbal working memory with neuro-archaeologyShelby S. Putt and Sobanawartiny Wijeakumar | pp. 272–288
- From actions to events: Communicating through language and gestureJames Pustejovsky | pp. 289–317
- From evolutionarily conserved frontal regions for sequence processing to human innovations for syntaxBenjamin Wilson and Christopher I. Petkov | pp. 318–335
- The evolution of enhanced conceptual complexity and of Broca’s area: Language preadaptationsP. Thomas Schoenemann | pp. 336–351
- Mental travels and the cognitive basis of languageMichael C. Corballis | pp. 352–369
- The comparative neuroprimatology 2018 (CNP-2018) road map for research on How the Brain Got LanguageMichael A. Arbib, Francisco Aboitiz, Judith M. Burkart, Michael Corballis, Gino Coudé, Erin Hecht, Katja Liebal, Masako Myowa-Yamakoshi, James Pustejovsky, Shelby Putt, Federico Rossano, Anne E. Russon, P. Thomas Schoenemann, Uwe Seifert, Katerina Semendeferi, Chris Sinha, Dietrich Stout, Virginia Volterra, Sławomir Wacewicz and Benjamin Wilson | pp. 370–387
“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.”
Pamela Villar González, University of Warsaw, on Linguist List 32.2164 (24 June 2021)
Cited by (4)
Cited by four other publications
Burgos, Marinel , Joan Politico & Michelle Vergara
Arbib, Michael
2024. Pantomime within and beyond the evolution of language. In Perspectives on Pantomime [Advances in Interaction Studies, 12], ► pp. 16 ff.
Sivakumar, Menon Swathi & Vinod Balakrishnan
This list is based on CrossRef data as of 13 march 2026. 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.