Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2009 Jul-Aug;42(4):263-71.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcomdis.2009.03.009. Epub 2009 Apr 17.

Evolving the language-ready brain and the social mechanisms that support language

Michael A Arbib  1
Affiliations

Evolving the language-ready brain and the social mechanisms that support language

Michael A Arbib. J Commun Disord. 2009 Jul-Aug.

Abstract

We first review the mirror-system hypothesis on the evolution of the language-ready brain, stressing the important role of imitation and protosign in providing the scaffolding for protospeech. We then assess the role of social interaction and non-specific knowledge of language in the emergence of new sign languages in deaf communities (focusing on Nicaraguan Sign Language).

Learning outcomes: (1) Readers will understand the difference between mirror systems in humans and monkeys, and see how the evolution of imitation and protosign required the biological evolution of mirror systems with linkages to diverse regions beyond the mirror system. (2) Readers will see how social structure complements brain mechanisms in yielding language through cultural evolution supported by having language-ready brains, rather than through possession of an innate Universal Grammar. (3) Readers will understand that ontogeny does not recapitulate phylogeny, but will appreciate what mechanisms currently operative in modern children acquiring language may also have served early humans during the cumulative invention of the idea of language.

PubMed Disclaimer

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

References

    1. Arbib MA. The mirror system, imitation, and the evolution of language. In: Dautenhahn K, Nehaniv CL, editors. Imitation in Animals and Artifacts. Complex Adaptive Systems. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press; 2002. pp. 229–280.
    1. Arbib MA. From Monkey-like Action Recognition to Human Language: An Evolutionary Framework for Neurolinguistics (with commentaries and author's response) Behavioral and Brain Sciences. 2005a;28:105–167. - PubMed
    1. Arbib MA. Interweaving Protosign and Protospeech: Further Developments Beyond the Mirror. Interaction Studies: Social Behavior and Communication in Biological and Artificial Systems. 2005b;6:145–171.
    1. Arbib MA. A sentence is to speech as what is to action? Cortex. 2006;42(4):507–514. - PubMed
    1. Arbib MA. Premotor Cortex and the Mirror Neuron Hypothesis for the Evolution of Language. In: Kaas JH, Preuss TM, editors. Evolution of Nervous Systems, A Comprehensive Reference. Volume 4. Primates. Amsterdam: Elsevier, Academic Press; 2007. pp. 417–422.