Connectivity and the search for specializations in the language-capable brain
Open accessAbstract
The search for the anatomical basis of language has traditionally been a search for specializations. More recently such research has focused both on aspects of brain organization that are unique to humans and aspects shared with other primates. This work has mostly concentrated on the architecture of connections between brain areas. However, as specializations can take many guises, comparison of anatomical organization across species is often complicated. We demonstrate how viewing different types of specializations within a common framework allows one to better appreciate both shared and unique aspects of brain organization. We illustrate this point by discussing recent insights into the anatomy of the dorsal language pathway to the frontal cortex and areas for laryngeal control in the motor cortex.
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Computational processing might have been facilitated by some of the changes presented here, at least in some of the circuits that have expanded in our lineage.
“Computational processing might have been facilitated by some of the changes presented here, at least in some of the circuits that have expanded in our lineage111,112, since subtle maturational differences early in development113 may have had a considerable impact on the phenotype.”
From A catalog of single nucleotide changes distinguishing modern humans from archaic hominins (2019) · cites this paper as [111]
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A catalog of single nucleotide changes distinguishing modern humans from archaic hominins
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- Authors
- Mars, R. B., Eichert, N., Jbabdi, S., Verhagen, L., & Rushworth, M. F. S.
- Affiliations
- Radboud University Nijmegen (NL)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Mars, Rogier B
- Venue
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2018-06
- Volume
- 21
- Pages
- 19-26
- ISSN
- 2352-1546 (ISSN-L)
- PMC
- PMC7610656
- OpenAlex
- W2774473118
- Cited by
- 41
- References
- 57
- Citations by year
- 2026: 1 · 2025: 3 · 2024: 3 · 2023: 3 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 8 · 2019: 5 · 2018: 6
- FWCI
- 0.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- hybrid
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences (publishedVersion, cc-by)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- PubMed Central (acceptedVersion, cc-by)
- Radboud Repository (Radboud University) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Funders
- Wellcome Trust (203730/Z/16/Z, 203139/Z/16)
- Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/N019814/1)
- Medical Research Council (G0902373, MR/L009013/1)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neurobiology of Language and Bilingualism
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Developmental and Educational Psychology › Language Development and Disorders
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Neuroscience and Music Perception
- Keywords
- language specialization, brain connectivity, frontal cortex, laryngeal control, motor cortex, comparative neuroanatomy
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