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Complex imitation and the language-ready brain

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2014

Michael A. Arbib
Michael A. Arbib*
Affiliation:
Computer Science, Neuroscience, and the USC Brain Project, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-2520, USA. E-mail: arbib@usc.edu
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Abstract

The present article responds to commentaries from experts in anthropology, apraxia, archeology, linguistics, neuroanatomy, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, neuropsychology, primatology, sign language emergence and sign language neurolinguistics on the book How the brain got language: The mirror system hypothesis (Arbib 2012). The role of complex imitation is discussed, and the distinction between protolanguage and language is emphasized. Issues debated include the role of protosign in scaffolding protospeech, the interplay between biological evolution of the brain and cultural evolution of the social interactions within groups, the relations brain mechanisms for action and language, and the question of when language first emerged.

Keywords

language evolutionmirror neuronsmirror systemsbrainprimate communicationimitationschema theorypantomimeprotosignprotolanguageprotospeechsign languageaphasiaapraxiahuman origins
Type
Response to commentaries
Information
Language and Cognition , Volume 5 , Issue 2-3: Special Issue , September 2013 , pp. 273 - 312
Copyright
Copyright © UK Cognitive Linguistics Association 2013

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