3rd Conference
The Evolution of Language
April 3rd - 6th , 2000
Abstracts
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3rd Conference Abstracts |
Rutgers University - Newark, Department of Psychology
abstract
There have been many attempts to account for the neuroevolution of human language, focused on topics ranging from the adaptation of motor processing systems in the basal ganglia, to the hypothesized development of a brain region for theory of mind (for a review, see Patterson and Bly, 1999). Some of these theories focused on the development of a specific area in the brain dedicated for language specific processing. We propose that language, while it is an elaborate and specific system of behaviors, is woven inextricably into another central component of cognition: memory, and therefore the neural substrates of language are intimately connected to those of memory. We investigate the relationship between language and memory, drawing on three sources of evidence: the link between the development and use of memory subsystems during language acquisition, the link between memory processes and language in adults, and a comparison of human and nonhuman primate memory and language abilities. Recent theories suggest that memory can no longer be thought of as a repository for information separate from other processing resources, or as a single location in the brain (Miyake and Prah, 1999). Recent research has also revealed that language processing can no longer be considered limited to a few specialized areas such as Broca's and Wernicke's area (for review, Neville et al., 1997). How separate are memory processes used for language from memory processes used for other cognitive functions? Studies in our lab and other labs (Caplan and Waters, 1999) will be reviewed, from the viewpoint of several different working memory models. Both behavioral and neuroanatomical comparisons of humans and phylogenetically related animals will be examined. Deacon (1997), has suggested a link between memory and language evolution. Only humans seem capable both of acquiring a large lexicon of more than a few hundred items and of learning syntactic rules (Bates and Goodman, 1997). We propose that a rearrangement of memory subsystems may have been responsible for the appearance of both of these capacities in humans.
Bates, E., & Goodman, J. (1997). On the inseparability of grammar and the lexicon: Evidence from acquisition, aphasia and real-time processing. In G. Altmann (Ed.), Special issue on the lexicon, Language and Cognitive Processes, 12(5/6), 507-586.
Caplan, D., & Waters, G. S. (1999). Verbal Working Memory and Comprehension. Behavioral and Brain Sciences,22(1): 77-126.
Deacon, T. (1997). The symbolic species: The coevolution of language and the brain. W.W. Norton: New York.
Miyake, A., and Prah (Eds.) (1999) . Models of Working Memory: Mechanisms of active maintenance and executive control. Cambridge University Press: New York.
Neville, Helen J; Bavelier, Daphne (1998). Neural organization and plasticity of language. Current Opinion in Neurobiology. Vol 8(2). 254-258.
Patterson MD, Bly BM (1999) The Brain Basis of Syntactic Processes: Architecture, Ontogeny, and Phylogeny. In Bly BM, Rumelhart DE (eds.) Handbook of Perception and Cognition: Cognitive Science. Academic Press, San Diego, CA.
Conference site: http://www.infres.enst.fr/confs/evolang/