to visual input, including visual gestures (Neville 1991).

Similarly, the visual neocortex of congenitally

blind subjects assumes tactile functions, if such individuals master Braille at a young age (Sadato et al.
1998). Even literacy changes brain functions, and may, in fact, sharpen the neural perception of phonemes
(Dehaene et al. 2010). Recognition of the environmentally‐induced developmental plasticity of
mammalian brains helps explain why chimpanzees, bonobos, and other apes, reared from infancy in
human homes, can, within limits, develop protolanguage‐like behaviours, whereas wild apes and/or apes
captured in adulthood usually cannot.’
The vocal tract
Although changes in brain function almost certainly played central roles in language evolution, as
MacLarnon notes (Chapter 22), other critical anatomical changes occurred as well. For example, the
larynx is lower in humans than in apes and the oral cavity is differently structured. Together, these changes
allow humans to produce sounds not readily produced by apes. This vocal tract reorganization may have
been facilitated by bipedalism, diet, or a combination of the two. In addition, humans have far greater
neural control of their breathing than do apes, and, unlike apes, they have no laryngeal air sacs. MacLarnon
suggests that increased control of the respiratory apparatus involved expansion of the numbers of neurons
in the thoracic spinal cord. While it is impossible to determine laryngeal position from fossils, the very
few hyoid bones that have been found suggest that modern human laryngeal structure, including absent
air sacs, may have been (p. 142) present in the common ancestor of Neanderthals and anatomically modern
humans, but not in australopithecines. Similarly, fossil vertebrae indicate that both Neanderthals and
anatomically modern humans had achieved the modern size of the thoracic spinal cord, but Homo erectus
had not (see Wood and Bauernfeind, Chapter 25, for a contrary view on the thoracic cord).
Summary
In sum, evidence indicates that language evolution probably demanded changes in multiple interacting
genes and involved expansions in multiple parts of the brain, as well as changes in the vocal tract and
thoracic spinal cord. Given our current understandings of exaptation, niche construction, the Baldwin
effect, and neural plasticity, neural changes probably built upon precursor neurobehavioural functions in
non‐human primates and occurred over a lengthy period of time. In some cases, both neural and vocal
changes may have occurred in response to the selective pressures exerted by language and culture, as
opposed to strictly external environmental circumstances; see also Bickerton (2009a). Nothing that we
know about genetic or neural functions would suggest that language arose in response to a sudden mutation
or the sudden appearance of a new neural module.

References:
Adultbrainshttp://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199541119.001.0001/oxford
hb-9780199541119-e-12
http://www.ucd.ie/artspgs/langevo/origins%20of%20lang.pdf
to visual input, including visual gestures (Neville 1991). Similarly, the visual neocortex of congenitally
blind subjects assumes tactile functions, if such individuals master Braille at a young age (Sadato et al.
1998). Even literacy changes brain functions, and may, in fact, sharpen the neural perception of phonemes
(Dehaene et al. 2010). Recognition of the environmentally‐induced developmental plasticity of
mammalian brains helps explain why chimpanzees, bonobos, and other apes, reared from infancy in
human homes, can, within limits, develop protolanguage‐like behaviours, whereas wild apes and/or apes
captured in adulthood usually cannot.’
The vocal tract
Although changes in brain function almost certainly played central roles in language evolution, as
MacLarnon notes (Chapter 22), other critical anatomical changes occurred as well. For example, the
larynx is lower in humans than in apes and the oral cavity is differently structured. Together, these changes
allow humans to produce sounds not readily produced by apes. This vocal tract reorganization may have
been facilitated by bipedalism, diet, or a combination of the two. In addition, humans have far greater
neural control of their breathing than do apes, and, unlike apes, they have no laryngeal air sacs. MacLarnon
suggests that increased control of the respiratory apparatus involved expansion of the numbers of neurons
in the thoracic spinal cord. While it is impossible to determine laryngeal position from fossils, the very
few hyoid bones that have been found suggest that modern human laryngeal structure, including absent
air sacs, may have been (p. 142) present in the common ancestor of Neanderthals and anatomically modern
humans, but not in australopithecines. Similarly, fossil vertebrae indicate that both Neanderthals and
anatomically modern humans had achieved the modern size of the thoracic spinal cord, but Homo erectus
had not (see Wood and Bauernfeind, Chapter 25, for a contrary view on the thoracic cord).
Summary
In sum, evidence indicates that language evolution probably demanded changes in multiple interacting
genes and involved expansions in multiple parts of the brain, as well as changes in the vocal tract and
thoracic spinal cord. Given our current understandings of exaptation, niche construction, the Baldwin
effect, and neural plasticity, neural changes probably built upon precursor neurobehavioural functions in
non‐human primates and occurred over a lengthy period of time. In some cases, both neural and vocal
changes may have occurred in response to the selective pressures exerted by language and culture, as
opposed to strictly external environmental circumstances; see also Bickerton (2009a). Nothing that we
know about genetic or neural functions would suggest that language arose in response to a sudden mutation
or the sudden appearance of a new neural module.

References:
Adultbrainshttp://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199541119.001.0001/oxford
hb-9780199541119-e-12
http://www.ucd.ie/artspgs/langevo/origins%20of%20lang.pdf
to visual input, including visual gestures (Neville 1991). Similarly, the visual neocortex of congenitally
blind subjects assumes tactile functions, if such individuals master Braille at a young age (Sadato et al.
1998). Even literacy changes brain functions, and may, in fact, sharpen the neural perception of phonemes
(Dehaene et al. 2010). Recognition of the environmentally‐induced developmental plasticity of
mammalian brains helps explain why chimpanzees, bonobos, and other apes, reared from infancy in
human homes, can, within limits, develop protolanguage‐like behaviours, whereas wild apes and/or apes
captured in adulthood usually cannot.’
The vocal tract
Although changes in brain function almost certainly played central roles in language evolution, as
MacLarnon notes (Chapter 22), other critical anatomical changes occurred as well. For example, the
larynx is lower in humans than in apes and the oral cavity is differently structured. Together, these changes
allow humans to produce sounds not readily produced by apes. This vocal tract reorganization may have
been facilitated by bipedalism, diet, or a combination of the two. In addition, humans have far greater
neural control of their breathing than do apes, and, unlike apes, they have no laryngeal air sacs. MacLarnon
suggests that increased control of the respiratory apparatus involved expansion of the numbers of neurons
in the thoracic spinal cord. While it is impossible to determine laryngeal position from fossils, the very
few hyoid bones that have been found suggest that modern human laryngeal structure, including absent
air sacs, may have been (p. 142) present in the common ancestor of Neanderthals and anatomically modern
humans, but not in australopithecines. Similarly, fossil vertebrae indicate that both Neanderthals and
anatomically modern humans had achieved the modern size of the thoracic spinal cord, but Homo erectus
had not (see Wood and Bauernfeind, Chapter 25, for a contrary view on the thoracic cord).
Summary
In sum, evidence indicates that language evolution probably demanded changes in multiple interacting
genes and involved expansions in multiple parts of the brain, as well as changes in the vocal tract and
thoracic spinal cord. Given our current understandings of exaptation, niche construction, the Baldwin
effect, and neural plasticity, neural changes probably built upon precursor neurobehavioural functions in
non‐human primates and occurred over a lengthy period of time. In some cases, both neural and vocal
changes may have occurred in response to the selective pressures exerted by language and culture, as
opposed to strictly external environmental circumstances; see also Bickerton (2009a). Nothing that we
know about genetic or neural functions would suggest that language arose in response to a sudden mutation
or the sudden appearance of a new neural module.

References:
Adultbrainshttp://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199541119.001.0001/oxford
hb-9780199541119-e-12
http://www.ucd.ie/artspgs/langevo/origins%20of%20lang.pdf
to visual input, including visual gestures (Neville 1991). Similarly, the visual neocortex of congenitally
blind subjects assumes tactile functions, if such individuals master Braille at a young age (Sadato et al.
1998). Even literacy changes brain functions, and may, in fact, sharpen the neural perception of phonemes
(Dehaene et al. 2010). Recognition of the environmentally‐induced developmental plasticity of
mammalian brains helps explain why chimpanzees, bonobos, and other apes, reared from infancy in
human homes, can, within limits, develop protolanguage‐like behaviours, whereas wild apes and/or apes
captured in adulthood usually cannot.’
The vocal tract
Although changes in brain function almost certainly played central roles in language evolution, as
MacLarnon notes (Chapter 22), other critical anatomical changes occurred as well. For example, the
larynx is lower in humans than in apes and the oral cavity is differently structured. Together, these changes
allow humans to produce sounds not readily produced by apes. This vocal tract reorganization may have
been facilitated by bipedalism, diet, or a combination of the two. In addition, humans have far greater
neural control of their breathing than do apes, and, unlike apes, they have no laryngeal air sacs. MacLarnon
suggests that increased control of the respiratory apparatus involved expansion of the numbers of neurons
in the thoracic spinal cord. While it is impossible to determine laryngeal position from fossils, the very
few hyoid bones that have been found suggest that modern human laryngeal structure, including absent
air sacs, may have been (p. 142) present in the common ancestor of Neanderthals and anatomically modern
humans, but not in australopithecines. Similarly, fossil vertebrae indicate that both Neanderthals and
anatomically modern humans had achieved the modern size of the thoracic spinal cord, but Homo erectus
had not (see Wood and Bauernfeind, Chapter 25, for a contrary view on the thoracic cord).
Summary
In sum, evidence indicates that language evolution probably demanded changes in multiple interacting
genes and involved expansions in multiple parts of the brain, as well as changes in the vocal tract and
thoracic spinal cord. Given our current understandings of exaptation, niche construction, the Baldwin
effect, and neural plasticity, neural changes probably built upon precursor neurobehavioural functions in
non‐human primates and occurred over a lengthy period of time. In some cases, both neural and vocal
changes may have occurred in response to the selective pressures exerted by language and culture, as
opposed to strictly external environmental circumstances; see also Bickerton (2009a). Nothing that we
know about genetic or neural functions would suggest that language arose in response to a sudden mutation
or the sudden appearance of a new neural module.

References:
Adultbrainshttp://www.oxfordhandbooks.com/view/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199541119.001.0001/oxford
hb-9780199541119-e-12
http://www.ucd.ie/artspgs/langevo/origins%20of%20lang.pdf