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Visuospatial functions and language: a paleoneurological view Emiliano Bruner Centro Nacional de Investigación sobre la Evolución Humana [email protected]
Spinal cord and vertebrae … Hyoid bone … Craniofacial morphology
Language and fossils …
Outer and Middle Ear Morphology
Martínez et al., 2004, 2012
Brain asymmetries
1. Endocranial asymmetries are similar in all human species
2. We have no evidence of non-allometric human-only morphological asymmetries (vs living apes)
3. We don’t know the structural mechanisms behind morphological asymmetries
Dupej et al., 2018
Language areas
Broca’s
Wernicke’s
No differences in sulcal pattern or gross morphology among human species …
Bruner, 2017
Frontal widening in modern humans and Neanderthals …
Bruner and Holloway, J Hum Evol 2010
Beaudet and Bruner, Palevol 2017
Pereira-Pedro et al., J Anat 2017
• No evidence of gross morphological changes in human frontal lobes (apes and humans) • Frontal curvature and width are sensitive to cranial constraints (fossil humans) • Any possible subtle difference go beyond the resolution of paleoneurology, and of the
statistics available for small samples
Frontal bulging
Bruner et al., Am J Phys Anthropol 2013
• Almost no information from the skeleton • No conclusions from brain asymmetries or sulcal pattern • No conclusions from frontal lobe size or curvature • Wide frontal lobes are likely due to cranial constraints • Anatomical features associated with language are not fully known • Sample sizes do not allow a proper statistical perspective
Fossils and language
Visuospatial integration and parietal lobes
• Body-vision • Body cognition • Visual imaging • Hand-tool • Egocentric space and time
Bruner, Brain Behav Evol 2018
Tools and language …
Hand-Speech neuroanatomical proximity (Broca’s areas, motor cortex)
Hand-Speech functional similarity (sequential combinations of motor modules)
Language Somatic simulation Comprehension
Jirak et al. 2010; Marino et al., 2012; Buccino et al 2016
Body and language …
Brain size (association cortex)
Group size
Language
Robin Dunbar and the Social Brain
grooming
150
50
Brain and Group size (parietal cortex)
Language
Tool use (parietal cortex)
Cultural transmission
Language and fossil humans …
Social structure Tool use
Language and fossil humans … A personal view
Parietal cortex Ear and acoustics
Brain asymmetry Sulcal pattern Facial and postcranial skeletal evidence
Useful
Additional
Complementary
Religion relies on POSSIBILITY
Science relies on PROBABILITY
Opinions vs Hypotheses
Paleoneuro Lab
Sofia Pereira Pedro Annapaola Fedato María Silva Gago Alannah Pearson Gizéh Rangel Stana Eisóva
