The Phonological Loop: A Key Innovation in Human Evolution
TL;DR: The acquisition of a functional phonological circuit can be considered as a key innovation that made possible a series of subsequent changes in human evolution leading to the complex and recursion‐based language of modern humans.
Abstract: The phonological loop—here referred to as a specialized auditory‐vocal sensorimotor circuit connecting posterior temporal areas with the inferior parietal lobe (Brodmann’s areas 40 and 39) and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (Broca’s region, Brodmann’s areas 44 and 45)—is proposed to have been a fundamental element associated with the origin of vocal language in human evolution. This circuit derives from auditory prefrontal networks that preexist in the nonhuman primate but that acquired an unprecedented development in the human brain. The phonological loop overlaps and possibly coevolved with a more ancient circuit involved in hand manipulation and gesture coding (the parieto‐frontal mirror neuron network) and is complementary to a “ventral” auditory circuit connecting the anterior temporal region with anterior Broca’s area (area 45) via the extreme capsule. The development of the phonological loop produced a significant increase in short‐term memory capacity for voluntary vocalizations, which facili...
Citations
More filters
TL;DR: A multicomponent model of the phenomenon informed by developmental, cognitive, and psycholinguistic considerations is presented, which appears to perform significant functions in human cognition, which in some cases reflect its developmental origins and its sharing of resources with other cognitive processes.
Abstract: Inner speech—also known as covert speech or verbal thinking—has been implicated in theories of cognitive development, speech monitoring, executive function, and psychopathology. Despite a growing body of knowledge on its phenomenology, development, and function, approaches to the scientific study of inner speech have remained diffuse and largely unintegrated. This review examines prominent theoretical approaches to inner speech and methodological challenges in its study, before reviewing current evidence on inner speech in children and adults from both typical and atypical populations. We conclude by considering prospects for an integrated cognitive science of inner speech, and present a multicomponent model of the phenomenon informed by developmental, cognitive, and psycholinguistic considerations. Despite its variability among individuals and across the life span, inner speech appears to perform significant functions in human cognition, which in some cases reflect its developmental origins and its sharing of resources with other cognitive processes.
410 citations
01 Jan 2006
TL;DR: It is proposed that pSTM arises from the cycling of information between two phonological buffers, one involved in speech perception and one in speech production, and the understanding of their neural bases will benefit from incorporating them.
Abstract: Traditionally, models of speech comprehension and production do not depend on concepts and processes from the phonological short-term memory (pSTM) literature. Likewise, in working memory research, pSTM is considered to be a language-independent system that facilitates language acquisition rather than speech processing per se. We discuss couplings between pSTM, speech perception and speech production, and we propose that pSTM arises from the cycling of information between two phonological buffers, one involved in speech perception and one in speech production. We discuss the specific role of these processes in speech processing, and argue that models of speech perception and production, and our understanding of their neural bases, will benefit from incorporating them.
184 citations
01 Jan 2009
TL;DR: Together, these results implicate the extracellular generation of protons, rather than intracellular acidification, as the primary signal that mediates the taste of CO2, and demonstrate that sour cells not only provide the membrane anchor for Car4 but also serve as the cellular sensors for carbonation.
Abstract: TRCs, with taste at the periphery proposed to be encoded via labeled lines [i.e., a sweet line, a sour line, a bitter line, etc. (21)]. Given that Car4 is specifically tethered to the surface of sour-sensing cells, and thus ideally poised to provide a highly localized acid signal to the sour TRCs, we reasoned that carbonation might be sensed through activation of the sour-labeled line. A prediction of this postulate is that prevention of sour cell activation should eliminate CO2 detection, even in the presence of wild-type Car4 function. To test this hypothesis, we engineered animals in which the activation of nerve fibers innervating sour-sensing cells was blocked by preventing neurotransmitter release from the PKD2L1-expressing TRCs. In essence, we transgenically targeted expression of tetanus toxin light chain [TeNT, an endopeptidase that removes an essential component of the synaptic machinery (34–36)] to sour-sensing TRCs, and then monitored the physiological responses of these mice to sweet, sour, bitter, salty, umami and CO2 stimulation. As predicted, taste responses to sour stimuli were selectively and completely abolished, whereas responses to sweet, bitter, salty and umami tastants remained unaltered (Fig. 4 and fig. S5). However, these animals also displayed a complete loss of taste responses to CO2 even though they still expressed Car4 on the surface of PKD2L1 cells. Together, these results implicate the extracellular generation of protons, rather than intracellular acidification (15), as the primary signal that mediates the taste of CO2, and demonstrate that sour cells not only provide the membrane anchor for Car4 but also serve as the cellular sensors for carbonation. Why do animals need CO2 sensing? CO2 detection could have evolved as a mechanism to recognize CO2-producing sources (18, 37)—for instance, to avoid fermenting foods. This view would be consistent with the recent discovery of a specialized CO2 taste detection in insects where it mediates robust innate taste behaviors (38). Alternatively, Car4 may be important to maintain the pH balance within taste buds, and might gratuitously function as a detector for carbonation only as an accidental consequence. Although CO2 activates the sour-sensing cells, it does not simply taste sour to humans. CO2 (like acid) acts not only on the taste system but also in other orosensory pathways, including robust stimulation of the somatosensory system (17, 22); thus, the final percept of carbonation is likely to be a combination of multiple sensory inputs. Nonetheless, the “fizz” and “tingle” of heavily carbonated water is often likened to mild acid stimulation of the tongue, and in some cultures seltzer is even named for its salient sour taste (e.g., saurer Sprudel or Sauerwasser).
167 citations
TL;DR: This paper quantified maturation within the linguistic network in fourteen 1-to 4-month-old infants using an index based on the normalized T2-weighted magnetic resonance signal, and found that the ventral superior temporal sulcus (STS) is the less mature perisylvian region.
Abstract: Human infants, unlike even closely related primates, exhibit a remarkable capacity for language learning. Yet how the underlying anatomical network matures remains largely unknown. The classical view is that of a largely immature brain comprising only a few islands of maturity in primary cortices. This view has favored a description of learning based on bottom-up algorithms and has tended to discard the role of frontal regions, which were assumed to be barely functional early on. Here, using an index based on the normalized T2-weighted magnetic resonance signal, we have quantified maturation within the linguistic network in fourteen 1- to 4-month-old infants. Our results show first that the ventral superior temporal sulcus (STS), and not the inferior frontal area, is the less mature perisylvian region. A significant difference of maturation in the STS favoring the right side is an early testimony of the distinctive left-right development of this structure observed during the whole life. Second, asymmetries of maturation in Broca's area were correlated with asymmetries in the posterior STS and in the parietal segment of the arcuate fasciculus, suggesting that an efficient frontotemporal dorsal pathway might provide infants with a phonological loop circuitry much earlier than expected.
134 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the complexity of tool behavior increases regarding the number of active foci managed at a time in an action, the number and diversity of operational steps in a problem-solution complex, and the spatial and temporal vicinity of a solution.
Abstract: Tool use is the main database to track down behavioral developments in the archaeological record and thus human evolution Working‐memory capacity and modern cognitive potential, however, are no simple and obvious characters in tool behavior Coded in cognigrams, which allow a direct comparison, animal and human tool use can be examined for specific aspects of the working‐memory capacity Detailed studies of tool behavior of wasps, sea otters, bottlenose dolphins, and chimpanzees are presented and compared with the manufacture and use of Oldowan tools and Lower Paleolithic spears Although this shows a wide range of problem‐solution distances, problem solving in animals seems to be restricted to problem complexes for which a solution can be found in spatial and temporal vicinity In human evolution, the complexity of tool behavior increases regarding the number of active foci managed at a time in an action, the number and diversity of operational steps in a problem‐solution complex, and the spatial and te
108 citations
References
More filters
Book•
01 Jan 1890
TL;DR: For instance, the authors discusses the multiplicity of the consciousness of self in the form of the stream of thought and the perception of space in the human brain, which is the basis for our work.
Abstract: Arguably the greatest single work in the history of psychology. James's analyses of habit, the nature of emotion, the phenomenology of attention, the stream of thought, the perception of space, and the multiplicity of the consciousness of self are still widely cited and incorporated into contemporary theoretical accounts of these phenomena.
14,049 citations
TL;DR: The revised model differs from the old principally in focussing attention on the processes of integrating information, rather than on the isolation of the subsystems, which provides a better basis for tackling the more complex aspects of executive control in working memory.
6,350 citations
"The Phonological Loop: A Key Innova..." refers background in this paper
...Subsequently, Baddeley (2000) added a fourth component, the episodic buffer....
[...]
TL;DR: The concept of working memory proposes that a dedicated system maintains and stores information in the short term, and that this system underlies human thought processes.
Abstract: The concept of working memory proposes that a dedicated system maintains and stores information in the short term, and that this system underlies human thought processes. Current views of working memory involve a central executive and two storage systems: the phonological loop and the visuospatial sketchpad. Although this basic model was first proposed 30 years ago, it has continued to develop and to stimulate research and debate. The model and the most recent results are reviewed in this article.
4,556 citations
"The Phonological Loop: A Key Innova..." refers background in this paper
...…loop, including a transient storage component located in the inferior parietal lobe and a rehearsal component involving Broca’s area (Brodmann’s areas 44 and 45—some authors include area 47 as well; see reviews in Aboitiz and Garcı́a 1997; Baddeley 2003; Smith and Jonides 1998; see fig....
[...]
TL;DR: A dual-stream model of speech processing is outlined that assumes that the ventral stream is largely bilaterally organized — although there are important computational differences between the left- and right-hemisphere systems — and that the dorsal stream is strongly left- Hemisphere dominant.
Abstract: Despite decades of research, the functional neuroanatomy of speech processing has been difficult to characterize. A major impediment to progress may have been the failure to consider task effects when mapping speech-related processing systems. We outline a dual-stream model of speech processing that remedies this situation. In this model, a ventral stream processes speech signals for comprehension, and a dorsal stream maps acoustic speech signals to frontal lobe articulatory networks. The model assumes that the ventral stream is largely bilaterally organized--although there are important computational differences between the left- and right-hemisphere systems--and that the dorsal stream is strongly left-hemisphere dominant.
4,234 citations
"The Phonological Loop: A Key Innova..." refers background in this paper
...The dorsal stream has been related to the processing of the temporal dynamics of complex sounds, mapping acoustic speech signals into frontal lobe articulatory networks (Belin and Zatorre 2000; Hickok and Poeppel 2007; Moser et al. 2009; Zatorre and Belin 2001)....
[...]
...…in the auditory areas of the superior temporal lobe and in a region termed the superior planum temporale (SPT) in the temporo-parietal junction, which was argued to represent a sensory-motor interface for phonological processing (see Buchsbaum and D’Esposito 2008; Hickok and Poeppel 2007)....
[...]
...On the other hand, the ventral pathway participates in identifying or recognizing auditory stimuli, including speech, and has been related to lexical processes mapping sound with meaning (Buchsbaum et al. 2005; Hickok and Poeppel 2007; Saur et al. 2008)....
[...]
...Furthermore, Hickok and Poeppel (2007) claim this to be a bilateral system, being represented in both the left and right hemispheres....
[...]