2007/01/23 by Philip Lieberman · 31 citations
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · Neuroscience · Psychology · #Animal Vocal Communication and Behavior #Artificial intelligence #Biology #Broca's area #Computer science #FOXP2 #Gene #Gesture #Human brain #Human language #Language Development and Disorders #Linguistics #Motor theory of speech perception #Multisensory perception and integration #Neurocomputational speech processing #Neuroscience #Perception #Speech perception #Speech production #Speech recognition #Syntax #Tongue #Vocal tract
paper · doi:10.1086/509092
openalex publication_date 2007/01/23 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/04
Human speech involves species‐specific anatomy deriving from the descent of the tongue into the pharynx. The human tongue’s shape and position yields the 1:1 oral‐to‐pharyngeal proportions of the supralaryngeal vocal tract. Speech also requires a brain that can “reiterate”—freely reorder a finite set of motor gestures to form a potentially infinite number of words and sentences. The end points of the evolutionary process are clear. The chimpanzee lacks a supralaryngeal vocal tract capable of producing the “quantal” sounds which facilitate both speech production and perception and a brain that can reiterate the phonetic contrasts apparent in its fixed vocalizations. The traditional Broca‐Wernicke brain‐language theory is incorrect; neural circuits linking regions of the cortex with the basal ganglia and other subcortical structures regulate motor control, including speech production, as well as cognitive processes including syntax. The dating of the FOXP2 gene, which governs the embryonic development of these subcortical structures, provides an insight on the evolution of speech and language. The starting points for human speech and language were perhaps walking and running. However, fully human speech anatomy first appears in the fossil record in the Upper Paleolithic (about 50,000 years ago) and is absent in both Neanderthals and earlier humans.