The past 10 years have witnessed rapid progress in our understanding of evolutionary and neurobiological foundations of language. This Research Topic aims at contributing to this body of knowledge by identifying components of what makes, and made, the human brain "language-ready". The term "language-ready brain" has been adopted by several researchers of very different theoretical persuasions, and it has several advantages over its competitors. First, the term draws attention to the brain as the focus of inquiry. Second, it enables us to keep clearly separate two entities: one, the language-ready brain, understood as the cluster of brain properties that sets the stage for language ontogeny and phylogeny, and the other, language, understood as the collection of properties that humans eventually acquire as a result of social interactions. Language-readiness draws attention to the eclectic, mosaic-like nature of the brain networks that make language acquisition and use possible. It highlights the possibility of non-linguistic sources for linguistic properties, and also urges us to move beyond the classical 'Broca-Wernicke' model of brain implementation, as well as casting a wider net concerning language-related genes.
We are looking for contributions that address questions pertaining to any aspect of our brain's language-readiness: evolution, development, mechanism and function.
The past 10 years have witnessed rapid progress in our understanding of evolutionary and neurobiological foundations of language. This Research Topic aims at contributing to this body of knowledge by identifying components of what makes, and made, the human brain "language-ready". The term "language-ready brain" has been adopted by several researchers of very different theoretical persuasions, and it has several advantages over its competitors. First, the term draws attention to the brain as the focus of inquiry. Second, it enables us to keep clearly separate two entities: one, the language-ready brain, understood as the cluster of brain properties that sets the stage for language ontogeny and phylogeny, and the other, language, understood as the collection of properties that humans eventually acquire as a result of social interactions. Language-readiness draws attention to the eclectic, mosaic-like nature of the brain networks that make language acquisition and use possible. It highlights the possibility of non-linguistic sources for linguistic properties, and also urges us to move beyond the classical 'Broca-Wernicke' model of brain implementation, as well as casting a wider net concerning language-related genes.
We are looking for contributions that address questions pertaining to any aspect of our brain's language-readiness: evolution, development, mechanism and function.