Origin of Language

The new experiments conducted at the University of Rochester have started to stir up some excitement in the field of psychology. These researchers provided findings that contradict the idea that there is only one language center of the brain. Their results have led to speculation on the very creation of language in human existence.

The psychologists at the University of Rochester were examining whether or not multiple areas are used in understanding various grammatical structures in the brain. There are some languages (like English) that create meaning from word order in the sentence. Others (like Spanish) rely on suffixes and inflection to convey subject-object interaction. However, in sign language, both are used. Therefore, this study took the signers and asked them to watch the two types of sentences being signed. There was a distinct difference in the brain activity that correlated with watching one grammatical structure versus the other. The temporal lobe was more activated in the word order sentences and the temporal was more activated in the suffix driven one. Therefore, many different parts of the brain are used in the comprehension of language.

I am not completely convinced by the results of this study however. It may not be fair to generalize an outcome based on a population of signers to all human beings. People who speak sign language may have different brain characteristics from those who don’t. Speaking several languages shapes how one thinks, therefore each language may have a unique impact. But overall, I do agree that there is not one single area of the brain that is dedicated to language production and comprehension. Language seems much too complex for that to be the case.

This leads to the debate about what differentiates animal brains from human ones. Human brains are much larger and have more white matter (aka more neural connections) than animal brains. Richard Leaky argues that humans developed the ability to produce language 300,000-400,000 years ago. However, Steven Pinker thinks that language first appeared with the appearance of the first modern human beings 200,000 years ago. He argues this because there was approximately a tripling of the size of cranial skulls within this period. The dramatic increase could easily have been due to the introduction of language into human capabilities.

There is also another argument that is based on the appearance of tools and trade into human culture. Matt Ridley argues that it is actually cultural pressure that launched the formation of language. Communication was necessary so that trade could happen and flourish between various human groups. Brains had to change to accommodate and to facilitate this phemonenon. If this assumption is correct, then language is a much newer development than either Leaky or Pinker would have predicted.