If the brain is composed of different parts and one or some of them are dedicated for language does that mean that the concept was always there before humans started communicating.
If so then does that mean that we reached the end of discovery/invention of such concepts since no brain „spaces“ are left.
In: Biology
The brain is a very flexible device. The “speech” center as we have identified it is what is most likely to make you unable to speak if it becomes damaged. That and MRIs where we see what is most active are how we identify different regions, and even then they are not necessarily hard distinctions. Other parts of the brain can compensate for damaged ones in some circumstances.
Well it’s not quite true that areas of the brain are “dedicated” to one function or the other. There are areas that can be seen in scans that represent specializations in certain functions, but those functions are shared to one degree or another throughout the brain. With that point aside, the areas of the brain that specialize in language comprehension and reproduction almost certainly predated language by specializing in vocalization. The concept of language did not need to predate the areas of the brain specializing in audio expression.
yes – things exist before we “discover” (really understood and defined) them…..everyone knew that gravity existed and dropping something causes it to fall…..what we didnt have is a standard formula to express it and the understanding of earth mass pulling objects in the scale of space
humans have always had the capacity for speech or vocal communication; over time it went from grunting to the pronunciations and words we are familiar with today…..in 300 years the rules for speech might change and a whole new set of words will be introduced
It’s hard to say we will reach the end of discoveries of how the brain functions. I am sure there are still things being researched and new discoveries will be made of how humans work/function/operate/think
It’s like the chicken and the egg. Neither language, nor the brain regions specialised in language came first, instead they both evolved together from earlier forms.
Interestingly, despite recent advances in medicine and the end of predation, human evolution is thought to be happening faster than ever, driven by mate selection and a huge and very mixed gene pool. I’d love to know what my great^(10) grandkids will look like.
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