scholarly journals The protocadherin 11X/Y ( PCDH11X/Y ) gene pair as determinant of cerebral asymmetry in modern Homo sapiens

2013 ◽  
Vol 1288 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Priddle ◽  
Timothy J. Crow
Keyword(s):  
Gene Pair ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Cerebral Asymmetry

Laterality and Human Speciation

2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Corballis
Keyword(s):  
Gene Mutation ◽  
Left Hemisphere ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Single Gene ◽  
Cerebral Dominance ◽  
Hominid Evolution ◽  
Cerebral Asymmetry ◽  
Single Gene Mutation ◽  
Cerebral Asymmetries ◽  
Speciation Event

This chapter describes the relevance of cerebral asymmetry. Although cerebral asymmetries abound in non-human animals, there are still reasons to suppose that there may have been a single-gene mutation producing a ‘dextral’ (D) allele, which created a strong bias toward right-handedness and left-cerebral dominance for language at some point in hominid evolution. The alternative ‘chance’ (C) allele is presumed directionally neutral, although there may be other influences producing weak population manual and cerebral asymmetries in the absence of the D allele. The discussion argues that language evolved from manual gestures, and the D allele may have served to guarantee manual and vocal control in the same (left) hemisphere in the majority of humans. The ‘speciation event’ that distinguished Homo sapiens from other large-brained hominids might be as witch from a predominantly gestural to a vocal form of language.

Double Vision

1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 266-267
Author(s):  
Michael C. Corballis
Keyword(s):  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Double Vision ◽  
Cerebral Asymmetry ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Asymmetry

“The asymmetry of the mammalian brain,” goes the first sentence in this book, “took hundreds of years to discover.” This is not a promising beginning. Hundreds of years from when? And do the authors really mean the mammalian brain? We are indeed beginning to discover all kinds of asymmetries in the brains of mammals, from mice to chimpanzees, but the only mammal that features in the book is Homo sapiens. Cerebral asymmetry in humans is scarcely news, having been discovered by Dax as early as 1836, and a great many volumes have been produced on the subject.

How language evolved from manual gestures

Gesture ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 200-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael C. Corballis
Keyword(s):  
Human Brain ◽  
Nonhuman Primates ◽  
Homo Sapiens ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Human Language ◽  
Present Level ◽  
Cerebral Asymmetry ◽  
Hominin Evolution ◽  
Lines Of Evidence

Several lines of evidence suggest that human language originated in manual gestures, not vocal calls. These are the ability of nonhuman primates to use manual action flexibly and intentionally, the nature of the primate mirror system and its homology with the language circuits in the human brain, the relative success in teaching apes to communicate manually rather than vocally, the ready invention of sophisticated signed languages by the deaf, the critical role of pointing in the way young children learn language, and the correlation between handedness and cerebral asymmetry for language. A gradual switch from manual to facial and vocal expression may have occurred late in hominin evolution, with speech reaching its present level of autonomy only in our own species, Homo sapiens.

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