From: IN%"harnad@Princeton.EDU" 6-APR-1994 10:27:32.16 To: IN%"philos-l@liverpool.ac.uk" "Members of the list" CC: Subj: Neurolinguistic Evolution: BBS Call for Commentators Received: from mailhub.liverpool.ac.uk (mail.liv.ac.uk) by vax.csc.cuhk.hk (PMDF #12160) id <01HAUNYS8I6O95N23M@vax.csc.cuhk.hk>; Wed, 6 Apr 1994 10:27 +0800 Received: from liverpool.ac.uk by mailhub.liverpool.ac.uk with Local-SMTP (PP) id <20721-0@mailhub.liverpool.ac.uk>; Wed, 6 Apr 1994 03:24:09 +0100 Date: Wed, 6 Apr 1994 03:24:09 BST From: Stevan Harnad Subject: Neurolinguistic Evolution: BBS Call for Commentators Sender: philos-l-request@liverpool.ac.uk To: Members of the list Reply-to: harnad@Princeton.EDU Message-id: <9404032312.AA27870@clarity.Princeton.EDU> Originator: philos-l@liverpool.ac.uk Precedence: bulk X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas X-Comment: UK Philosophers Below is the abstract of a forthcoming target article by: W. W. Wilkins & J. Wakefield on: BRAIN EVOLUTION AND NEUROLINGUISTIC PRECONDITIONS This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences. Commentators must be current BBS Associates or nominated by a current BBS Associate. To be considered as a commentator for this article, to suggest other appropriate commentators, or for information about how to become a BBS Associate, please send email to: harnad@clarity.princeton.edu or harnad@pucc.bitnet or write to: BBS, 20 Nassau Street, #240, Princeton NJ 08542 [tel: 609-921-7771] To help us put together a balanced list of commentators, please give some indication of the aspects of the topic on which you would bring your areas of expertise to bear if you were selected as a commentator. An electronic draft of the full text is available for inspection by anonymous ftp according to the instructions that follow after the abstract. ____________________________________________________________________ BRAIN EVOLUTION AND NEUROLINGUISTIC PRECONDITIONS Wendy K. Wilkins Department of English Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-0302 atwkw@asuacad.bitnet Jennie Wakefield Department of Speech and Hearing Arizona State University Tempe, AZ 85287-1908 asjxd@asuacad.bitnet ABSTRACT: This target article presents a plausible evolutionary scenario for the emergence of the neural preconditions for language in the hominid lineage. In pleistocene primate lineages there was a paired evolutionary expansion of frontal and parietal neocortex (through certain well-documented adaptive changes associated with manipulative behaviors) resulting, in ancestral hominids, in an incipient Broca's region and in a configurationally unique junction of the parietal, occipital, and temporal lobes of the brain (the POT). On our view, the development of the POT in our ancestors resulted in the neuroanatomical substrate consistent with the ability for representations in modality-neutral association cortex and, as a result of structure-imposing interaction with Broca's area, the hierarchically structured "conceptual structure." Evidence from paleoneurology and comparative primate neuroanatomy is used to argue that Homo habilis (2.5-2 million years ago) was the first hominid to have the appropriate gross neuroanatomical configuration to support conceptual structure. We thus suggest that the neural preconditions for language are met in H. habilis. Finally, we advocate a theory of language acquisition that uses conceptual structure as input to the learning procedures, thus bridging the gap between it and language. KEYWORDS: biology of language; conceptual structure; evolution; Homo habilis; language acquisition; neurolinguistics; origin of language; paleoneurology; preadaptation; sensorimotor feedback -------------------------------------------------------------- To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for this article, an electronic draft is retrievable by anonymous ftp from princeton.edu according to the instructions below (the filename is bbs.wilkins). Please do not prepare a commentary on this draft. Just let us know, after having inspected it, what relevant expertise you feel you would bring to bear on what aspect of the article. 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