Willems Roel M, Varley Rosemary
Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California Berkeley Berkeley, CA, USA.
Front Hum Neurosci. 2010 Oct 25;4:203. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2010.00203. eCollection 2010.
The human capacity to communicate has been hypothesized to be causally dependent upon language. Intuitively this seems plausible since most communication relies on language. Moreover, intention recognition abilities (as a necessary prerequisite for communication) and language development seem to co-develop. Here we review evidence from neuroimaging as well as from neuropsychology to evaluate the relationship between communicative and linguistic abilities. Our review indicates that communicative abilities are best considered as neurally distinct from language abilities. This conclusion is based upon evidence showing that humans rely on different cortical systems when designing a communicative message for someone else as compared to when performing core linguistic tasks, as well as upon observations of individuals with severe language loss after extensive lesions to the language system, who are still able to perform tasks involving intention understanding.
据推测，人类的交流能力在因果关系上依赖于语言。直观来看，这似乎是合理的，因为大多数交流都依赖于语言。此外，意图识别能力（作为交流的必要前提）和语言发展似乎是共同发展的。在这里，我们回顾了来自神经影像学以及神经心理学的证据，以评估交流能力和语言能力之间的关系。我们的综述表明，最好将交流能力视为在神经层面上与语言能力不同的能力。这一结论基于以下证据：与执行核心语言任务时相比，人类在为他人设计交流信息时依赖不同的皮质系统；以及对语言系统广泛受损后出现严重语言丧失但仍能执行涉及意图理解任务的个体的观察。
