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A cortical circuit for voluntary laryngeal control: Implications for the evolution language.

Gregory Hickok1

  • 1Department of Cognitive Sciences, University of California, Irvine, CA, USA. greg.hickok@uci.edu.

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Summary

The evolution of voluntary laryngeal control, crucial for speech, involved developing direct cortical innervation and auditory-motor circuits. This advancement in the human brain enabled complex vocalizations and language evolution.

Keywords:
Dorsal streamEvolutionLanguageLaryngeal control

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Area of Science:

  • Neuroscience
  • Evolutionary Biology
  • Linguistics

Background:

  • Voluntary laryngeal control is considered vital for language evolution.
  • Comparative neuroscience reveals humans possess direct cortical innervation of laryngeal motor neurons, unlike primates.
  • Cortical motor control relies on sensory feedback, implying evolution of both efferent and afferent pathways.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To propose a neurobiological link between the evolution of laryngeal control and the dorsal auditory-motor speech stream.
  • To investigate the role of the Sylvian parietal-temporal (Spt) circuit in speech evolution.
  • To suggest the Spt circuit and cortico-laryngeal pathway co-evolved, advancing speech capabilities.

Main Methods:

  • Comparative neuroanatomy to examine laryngeal innervation.
  • Review of research on cortical motor control and sensory feedback.
  • Theoretical integration of findings on the dorsal auditory-motor speech stream and laryngeal control.

Main Results:

  • Humans exhibit direct cortical control over laryngeal motor neurons, a trait absent in nonhuman primates.
  • The frontal lobe motor system is intrinsically linked with sensory feedback control circuits.
  • The dorsal stream Spt circuit is proposed to have co-evolved with the cortico-laryngeal pathway.

Conclusions:

  • The evolution of direct cortico-laryngeal control and the dorsal Spt circuit represent a significant advancement in human speech evolution.
  • A cortical laryngeal control circuit likely facilitates language by providing a prosodic framework for speech planning.
  • This integrated neural system underpins the human capacity for complex vocal communication.