Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany.
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Department of Neuropsychology, Leipzig, Germany.
Neurosci Biobehav Rev. 2017 Oct;81(Pt B):205-212. doi: 10.1016/j.neubiorev.2016.07.038. Epub 2016 Jul 29.
The review focuses on the neurobiological literature concerning the specific human ability to process linguistic hierarchies. First, we will discuss current ethological studies dedicated to the comparison between human and non-human animals for the processing of different grammar types. We will inspect the functional neuroanatomical structures of human and non-human primates more closely, including human developmental data, thereby suggesting interesting phylogenetic and ontogenetic differences. We then examine the neural reality of the Merge computation, being the most fundamental mechanism regulating natural language syntax, and offer new evidence for a possible localization of Merge in the most ventral anterior portion of BA 44. We conclude that BA 44, with its strong neural connection to the posterior temporal cortex, provides a recent evolutionary neurobiological basis for the unique human faculty of language.
这篇综述聚焦于神经生物学文献，探讨人类处理语言层次结构的特殊能力。首先，我们将讨论目前专注于比较人类和非人类动物处理不同语法类型的行为学研究。我们将更仔细地研究人类和非人类灵长类动物的功能神经解剖结构，包括人类发展数据，从而提出有趣的系统发生和个体发生差异。然后，我们研究了 Merge 计算的神经现实，这是调节自然语言句法的最基本机制，并为 Merge 可能定位于 BA 44 的最腹侧前部分提供了新的证据。我们的结论是，BA 44 与后颞叶皮层有着强大的神经连接，为人类独特的语言能力提供了最近的进化神经生物学基础。
