Univ Lyon, Université Lyon 1, Inserm, Stem Cell and Brain Research Institute, U1208, Bron, France.
Institut du Cerveau et de la Moelle épinière, Sorbonne Université, Inserm, CNRS, Paris, France.
Commun Biol. 2023 Jul 5;6(1):693. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-05066-9.
Identifying the evolutionary origins of human speech remains a topic of intense scientific interest. Here we describe a unique feature of adult human neuroanatomy compared to chimpanzees and other primates that may provide an explanation of changes that occurred to enable the capacity for speech. That feature is the Prefrontal extent of the Frontal Operculum (PFOp) region, which is located in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, adjacent and ventromedial to the classical Broca's area. We also show that, in chimpanzees, individuals with the most human-like PFOp, particularly in the left hemisphere, have greater oro-facial and vocal motor control abilities. This critical discovery, when combined with recent paleontological evidence, suggests that the PFOp is a recently evolved feature of human cortical structure (perhaps limited to the genus Homo) that emerged in response to increasing selection for cognitive and motor functions evident in modern speech abilities.
人类语言的进化起源仍然是一个备受关注的科学话题。在这里，我们描述了成人神经解剖学与黑猩猩和其他灵长类动物相比的一个独特特征，这可能为发生的变化提供了一个解释，这些变化使人类具备了说话的能力。这个特征是额下回前区（PFOp）区域的额叶前外侧延伸，位于额下回的腹外侧，靠近经典布罗卡区的腹内侧。我们还表明，在黑猩猩中，具有最接近人类 PFOp 的个体，特别是在左半球，具有更好的口面部和发声运动控制能力。这一关键发现，结合最近的古生物学证据，表明 PFOp 是人类皮质结构的一个最近进化的特征（可能仅限于人属），它是对现代语言能力中明显的认知和运动功能的选择压力增加的反应而出现的。
