Building blocks of language

2021 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Chris Jones ◽  
Juri Van den Heever
Keyword(s):  
Evolutionary Biology ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Apparent Lack ◽  
The Social ◽  
Language Competency ◽  
Evolutionary Emergence ◽  
Selection Of

Articulate language is a form of communication unique to humans. Over time, a spectrum of researchers has proposed various frameworks attempting to explain the evolutionary acquisition of this distinctive human attribute, some deploring the apparent lack of direct evidence elucidating the phenomenon, whilst others have pointed to the contributions of palaeoanthropology, the social brain hypothesis and the fact that even amongst contemporary humans, social group sizes reflect brain size. Theologians have traditionally (largely) ignored evolutionary insights as an explanatory paradigm for the origin of humankind. However, an increasing number are, of late, contributing to a worldview of humanity which accommodates both the epistemological realities of evolutionary biology as well as insights from theology. This includes reviewing and assessing the origins of articulate language and the physiological attributes necessary for its development. It is in this sense that the evolution of language is relevant from a theological perspective. The association between mental capacity and articulate language, already noted by Darwin, is relevant in explaining the larger group sizes found amongst humans, as is the incipient role played by the evolution of laughter in triggering the neuroendocrine system promoting bonding, to the eventual development of articulate language. Our aim is to review a selection of contemporary perspectives on the evolution of language, amongst others, reasons for the ease with which young children acquire language competency, and whether we may be hardwired for language from birth. Further reading is suggested in the footnotes.Contribution: This article is part of a special collection reflecting on the evolutionary building blocks of our past, present and future. It is based on historical thought and contemporary research with regards to the evolutionary emergence of language. It fits well with the intersectional and trans-disciplinary nature of this collection and journal.

The Social Brain

2021 ◽  
pp. 109-122
Author(s):  
Susan D. Healy
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Problem Solving ◽  
Social Intelligence ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Social Intelligence Hypothesis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Intellectual Abilities ◽  
Main Driver ◽  
Machiavellian Intelligence

The first discussion of a relationship between sociality and intelligence came in the middle of the twentieth century, especially by Humphrey who suggested that living socially demanded intellectual abilities above and beyond those required by an animal’s ecology. This led to the Social Intelligence Hypothesis, and then the Machiavellian Intelligence Hypothesis, both proposing that sociality was the main driver of the superior intellect of primates, especially humans. Two key challenges for this hypothesis are that sociality is difficult to quantify and cognition is not well tested by problem solving. More importantly, as data from more species have been examined, the analyses increasingly fail to show that sociality explains variation in brain size, even in primates. I conclude that appealing as this hypothesis is, it does not do a very compelling job of explaining variation in brain size.

scholarly journals When Individuals Do Not Stop at the Skin

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alan Barnard
Keyword(s):  
Social Networks ◽  
Group Size ◽  
Collective Consciousness ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Evolution Of Language ◽  
Hunter Gatherers ◽  
Theoretical Concepts ◽  
The Social ◽  
Three Phases

This chapter examines contemporary hunter-gatherer societies in Africa and elsewhere in light of the social brain and the distributed mind hypotheses. One question asked is whether African hunter-gatherers offer the best model for societies at the dawn of symbolic culture, or whether societies elsewhere offer better models. The chapter argues for the former. Theoretical concepts touched on include sharing and exchange, universal kin classification, and the relation between group size and social networks. The chapter offers reinterpretations of classic anthropological notions such as Wissler's age-area hypothesis, Durkheim's collective consciousness and Lévi-Strauss's elementary structures of kinship. Finally, the chapter outlines a theory of the co-evolution of language and kinship through three phases (signifying, syntactic and symbolic) and the subsequent breakdown of the principles of the symbolic phase across much of the globe in Neolithic times.

scholarly journals Absolute, not relative brain size correlates with sociality in ground squirrels

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1827) ◽  
pp. 20152725 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jan Matějů ◽  
Lukáš Kratochvíl ◽  
Zuzana Pavelková ◽  
Věra Pavelková Řičánková ◽  
Vladimír Vohralík ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Body Mass ◽  
Life History Traits ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Empirical Support ◽  
Ground Squirrels ◽  
Single Family ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
The Social ◽  
Tightly Coupled ◽  
Relative Brain Size

The social brain hypothesis (SBH) contends that cognitive demands associated with living in cohesive social groups favour the evolution of large brains. Although the correlation between relative brain size and sociality reported in various groups of birds and mammals provides broad empirical support for this hypothesis, it has never been tested in rodents, the largest mammalian order. Here, we test the predictions of the SBH in the ground squirrels from the tribe Marmotini. These rodents exhibit levels of sociality ranging from solitary and single-family female kin groups to egalitarian polygynous harems but feature similar ecologies and life-history traits. We found little support for the association between increase in sociality and increase in relative brain size. Thus, sociality does not drive the evolution of encephalization in this group of rodents, a finding inconsistent with the SBH. However, body mass and absolute brain size increase with sociality. These findings suggest that increased social complexity in the ground squirrels goes hand in hand with larger body mass and brain size, which are tightly coupled to each other.

scholarly journals Social cognition on the Internet: testing constraints on social network size

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1599) ◽  
pp. 2192-2201 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. I. M. Dunbar
Keyword(s):  
Digital Media ◽  
Social Networking Sites ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Network Size ◽  
The Internet ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Face To Face ◽  
Social Network Size ◽  
The Social

The social brain hypothesis (an explanation for the evolution of brain size in primates) predicts that humans typically cannot maintain more than 150 relationships at any one time. The constraint is partly cognitive (ultimately determined by some aspect of brain volume) and partly one of time. Friendships (but not necessarily kin relationships) are maintained by investing time in them, and failure to do so results in an inexorable deterioration in the quality of a relationship. The Internet, and in particular the rise of social networking sites (SNSs), raises the possibility that digital media might allow us to circumvent some or all of these constraints. This allows us to test the importance of these constraints in limiting human sociality. Although the recency of SNSs means that there have been relatively few studies, those that are available suggest that, in general, the ability to broadcast to many individuals at once, and the possibilities this provides in terms of continuously updating our understanding of network members’ behaviour and thoughts, do not allow larger networks to be maintained. This may be because only relatively weak quality relationships can be maintained without face-to-face interaction.

scholarly journals A Review of Effects of Environment on Brain Size in Insects

Insects ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 461
Author(s):  
Thomas Carle
Keyword(s):  
Body Size ◽  
Social Behaviour ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Encephalization Quotient ◽  
The Social ◽  
Relative Brain Size ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Development And Evolution

Brain size fascinates society as well as researchers since it is a measure often associated with intelligence and was used to define species with high “intellectual capabilities”. In general, brain size is correlated with body size. However, there are disparities in terms of relative brain size between species that may be explained by several factors such as the complexity of social behaviour, the ‘social brain hypothesis’, or learning and memory capabilities. These disparities are used to classify species according to an ‘encephalization quotient’. However, environment also has an important role on the development and evolution of brain size. In this review, I summarise the recent studies looking at the effects of environment on brain size in insects, and introduce the idea that the role of environment might be mediated through the relationship between olfaction and vision. I also discussed this idea with studies that contradict this way of thinking.

scholarly journals Re-evaluating the link between brain size and behavioural ecology in primates

2017 ◽  
Vol 284 (1865) ◽  
pp. 20171765 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren E. Powell ◽  
Karin Isler ◽  
Robert A. Barton
Keyword(s):  
Brain Size ◽  
Ecological Factors ◽  
Home Range Size ◽  
Activity Period ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Selection Pressures ◽  
The Social ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Taxonomic Groups ◽  
Cognitive Selection

Comparative studies have identified a wide range of behavioural and ecological correlates of relative brain size, with results differing between taxonomic groups, and even within them. In primates for example, recent studies contradict one another over whether social or ecological factors are critical. A basic assumption of such studies is that with sufficiently large samples and appropriate analysis, robust correlations indicative of selection pressures on cognition will emerge. We carried out a comprehensive re-examination of correlates of primate brain size using two large comparative datasets and phylogenetic comparative methods. We found evidence in both datasets for associations between brain size and ecological variables (home range size, diet and activity period), but little evidence for an effect of social group size, a correlation which has previously formed the empirical basis of the Social Brain Hypothesis. However, reflecting divergent results in the literature, our results exhibited instability across datasets, even when they were matched for species composition and predictor variables. We identify several potential empirical and theoretical difficulties underlying this instability and suggest that these issues raise doubts about inferring cognitive selection pressures from behavioural correlates of brain size.

Cliques, Coalitions, Comrades and Colleagues: Sources of Cohesion in Groups

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Holly Arrow
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Marginal Cost ◽  
Building Blocks ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Emotional Bonds ◽  
The Social ◽  
Interpersonal Ties

Cohesion may be based primarily on interpersonal ties or rely instead on the connection between member and group, while groups may cohere temporarily based on the immediate alignment of interests among members or may be tied together more permanently by socio-emotional bonds. Together, these characteristics define four prototypical group types. Cliques and coalitions are based primarily on dyadic ties. Groups of comrades or colleagues rely instead on the connection of members to the group for cohesion, which reduces the marginal cost of increasing group size. The strong glue of socio-emotional cohesion binds cliques and comrades, while coalitions and groups of colleagues are often based on weaker forms of cohesion. The mix of strong and weak adhesives and the greater scalability offered by the member-group bond provide the building blocks for assembling very large societies without overtaxing the social brain.

scholarly journals Social brains, simple minds: does social complexity really require cognitive complexity?

2007 ◽  
Vol 362 (1480) ◽  
pp. 561-575 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Barrett ◽  
Peter Henzi ◽  
Drew Rendall
Keyword(s):  
Social Life ◽  
Cognitive Complexity ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Social Worlds ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Proximate Mechanisms ◽  
The Social ◽  
High Level ◽  
The Mind

The social brain hypothesis is a well-accepted and well-supported evolutionary theory of enlarged brain size in the non-human primates. Nevertheless, it tends to emphasize an anthropocentric view of social life and cognition. This often leads to confusion between ultimate and proximate mechanisms, and an over-reliance on a Cartesian, narratively structured view of the mind and social life, which in turn lead to views of social complexity that are congenial to our views of ourselves, rather than necessarily representative of primate social worlds. In this paper, we argue for greater attention to embodied and distributed theories of cognition, which get us away from current fixations on ‘theory of mind’ and other high-level anthropocentric constructions, and allow for the generation of testable hypotheses that combine neurobiology, psychology and behaviour in a mutually reinforcing manner.

scholarly journals Parasitoidism, not sociality, is associated with the evolution of elaborate mushroom bodies in the brains of hymenopteran insects

2010 ◽  
Vol 278 (1707) ◽  
pp. 940-951 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sarah M. Farris ◽  
Susanne Schulmeister
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Learning ◽  
Mushroom Body ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Host Finding ◽  
Mushroom Bodies ◽  
Social Brain ◽  
Cognitive Demands ◽  
The Social ◽  
Mode Of Life

The social brain hypothesis posits that the cognitive demands of social behaviour have driven evolutionary expansions in brain size in some vertebrate lineages. In insects, higher brain centres called mushroom bodies are enlarged and morphologically elaborate (having doubled, invaginated and subcompartmentalized calyces that receive visual input) in social species such as the ants, bees and wasps of the aculeate Hymenoptera, suggesting that the social brain hypothesis may also apply to invertebrate animals. In a quantitative and qualitative survey of mushroom body morphology across the Hymenoptera, we demonstrate that large, elaborate mushroom bodies arose concurrent with the acquisition of a parasitoid mode of life at the base of the Euhymenopteran (Orussioidea + Apocrita) lineage, approximately 90 Myr before the evolution of sociality in the Aculeata. Thus, sociality could not have driven mushroom body elaboration in the Hymenoptera. Rather, we propose that the cognitive demands of host-finding behaviour in parasitoids, particularly the capacity for associative and spatial learning, drove the acquisition of this evolutionarily novel mushroom body architecture. These neurobehavioural modifications may have served as pre-adaptations for central place foraging, a spatial learning-intensive behaviour that is widespread across the Aculeata and may have contributed to the multiple acquisitions of sociality in this taxon.

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