Abstract
The evolution of language correlates with distinct changes in the primate brain. The present article compares language-related brain regions and their white matter connectivity in the developing and mature human brain with the respective structures in the nonhuman primate brain. We will see that the functional specificity of the posterior portion of Broca’s area (Brodmann area [BA 44]) and its dorsal fiber connection to the temporal cortex, shown to support the processing of structural hierarchy in humans, makes a crucial neural difference between the species. This neural circuit may thus be fundamental for the human syntactic capacity as the core of language.
Highlights
The evolution of language correlates with distinct changes in the primate brain
A fundamental distinction has often been made between two sequence types with different underlying grammar types: (a) finite state grammars (FSG) following an (AB)n rule and (b) phrase structure grammars (PSG) following an AnBn rule (Fitch & Hauser, 2004, see Fig. 1; Hauser, Chomsky, & Fitch, 2002)
The crucial differences between these grammars is that in the FSG, the A and B elements stand in an adjacent dependency whereas in the PSG the dependency between A and B elements is nonadjacent
Summary
The evolution of language correlates with distinct changes in the primate brain. The present article compares language-related brain regions and their white matter connectivity in the developing and mature human brain with the respective structures in the nonhuman primate brain. The inferior frontal gyrus and the posterior temporal cortex are known to function together during the processing of syntactically complex sentences (den Ouden et al, 2012; Makuuchi & Friederici, 2013). I conclude that BA 44 as part of Broca’s area and its dorsal connection to the temporal cortex is crucial for syntactic processes in natural languages.
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