Cortical memory mechanisms and language origins

Aboitiz, Francisco; Garcı́a, Ricardo; Bosman, Conrado A.; Brunetti, Enzo

doi:10.1016/j.bandl.2006.01.006

Cited by 81 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 187 publications

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“…Although it has been argued by some investigators that executive cognitive functions mediated by the prefrontal cortex have been modified in human evolution (Coolidge & Wynn 2005;Aboitiz et al 2006), there is a paucity of data addressing whether there has been corresponding neuroanatomical reorganization. It is possible that the prefrontal cortex (or subdivisions of it) has become disproportionately enlarged in humans (Semendeferi et al 2001;Schoenemann et al 2005;Rilling 2006;Schenker et al 2009); however, many of the reported differences are actually within the expected range for allometric scaling at human brain size (Holloway 2002;Sherwood et al 2005).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibitory interneurons of the human prefrontal cortex display conserved evolution of the phenotype and related genes

et al. 2009

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Inhibitory interneurons participate in local processing circuits, playing a central role in executive cognitive functions of the prefrontal cortex. Although humans differ from other primates in a number of cognitive domains, it is not currently known whether the interneuron system has changed in the course of primate evolution leading to our species. In this study, we examined the distribution of different interneuron subtypes in the prefrontal cortex of anthropoid primates as revealed by immunohistochemistry against the calcium-binding proteins calbindin, calretinin and parvalbumin. In addition, we tested whether genes involved in the specification, differentiation and migration of interneurons show evidence of positive selection in the evolution of humans. Our findings demonstrate that cellular distributions of interneuron subtypes in human prefrontal cortex are similar to other anthropoid primates and can be explained by general scaling rules. Furthermore, genes underlying interneuron development are highly conserved at the amino acid level in primate evolution. Taken together, these results suggest that the prefrontal cortex in humans retains a similar inhibitory circuitry to that in closely related primates, even though it performs functional operations that are unique to our species. Thus, it is likely that other significant modifications to the connectivity and molecular biology of the prefrontal cortex were overlaid on this conserved interneuron architecture in the course of human evolution.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Inhibitory interneurons of the human prefrontal cortex display conserved evolution of the phenotype and related genes

et al. 2009

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“…It is widely believed that VWM consists of a passive phonological storage process lasting 1–2 seconds, followed by an active rehearsal process that continues to maintain this information [138]. This active “phonological loop” may have evolved from primitive vocal sounds as phonemes were combined and lengthened to represent meanings [139, 140]. It is possible, therefore, that a working memory cache evolved alongside language.…”

Section: The Cerebellum and Inner Speech (C Marvel)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Consensus Paper: The Cerebellum's Role in Movement and Cognition

Koziol¹,

Budding²,

Andreasen³

et al. 2013

Cerebellum

875

586

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While the cerebellum's role in motor function is well recognized, the nature of its concurrent role in cognitive function remains considerably less clear. The current consensus paper gathers diverse views on a variety of important roles played by the cerebellum across a range of cognitive and emotional functions. This paper considers the cerebellum in relation to neurocognitive development, language function, working memory, executive function, and the development of cerebellar internal control models and reflects upon some of the ways in which better understanding the cerebellum's status as a “supervised learning machine” can enrich our ability to understand human function and adaptation. As all contributors agree that the cerebellum plays a role in cognition, there is also an agreement that this conclusion remains highly inferential. Many conclusions about the role of the cerebellum in cognition originate from applying known information about cerebellar contributions to the coordination and quality of movement. These inferences are based on the uniformity of the cerebellum's compositional infrastructure and its apparent modular organization. There is considerable support for this view, based upon observations of patients with pathology within the cerebellum.

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“…Although some cortical areas (e.g. anterior cingulate gyrus) in monkeys have been connected to the learning of vocalizations in particular foodbased paradigms (Gemba et al, 1995), whether they are truly connected to the voluntary characteristic of vocal production or instead to the motivation to obtain the food reward remains unclear (Aboitiz et al, 2006;Liebal et al, 2014). More recent findings suggest that neurons in the prefrontal cortex mediate voluntary vocalizations in monkeys (Coudé et al, 2011;Hage and Nieder, 2013) although this control may disappear with age suggesting a different evolutionary pathway compared to humans (Hage et al, 2016).…”

Section: Vocal Communication: Productionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A comparative neurological approach to emotional expressions in primate vocalizations

Gruber

Grandjean

2017

Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews

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a b s t r a c tDifferent approaches from different research domains have crystallized debate over primate emotional processing and vocalizations in recent decades. On one side, researchers disagree about whether emotional states or processes in animals truly compare to those in humans. On the other, a long-held assumption is that primate vocalizations are innate communicative signals over which nonhuman primates have limited control and a mirror of the emotional state of the individuals producing them, despite growing evidence of intentional production for some vocalizations. Our goal is to connect both sides of the discussion in deciphering how the emotional content of primate calls compares with emotional vocal signals in humans. We focus particularly on neural bases of primate emotions and vocalizations to identify cerebral structures underlying emotion, vocal production, and comprehension in primates, and discuss whether particular structures or neuronal networks solely evolved for specific functions in the human brain. Finally, we propose a model to classify emotional vocalizations in primates according to four dimensions (learning, control, emotional, meaning) to allow comparing calls across species.

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Cortical memory mechanisms and language origins

Cited by 81 publications

References 187 publications

Inhibitory interneurons of the human prefrontal cortex display conserved evolution of the phenotype and related genes

Inhibitory interneurons of the human prefrontal cortex display conserved evolution of the phenotype and related genes

Consensus Paper: The Cerebellum's Role in Movement and Cognition

A comparative neurological approach to emotional expressions in primate vocalizations

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