Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-j824f Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-14T04:56:58.877Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Evolution of affective and linguistic disambiguation under social eavesdropping pressures

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Kevin B. Clark*
Affiliation:
Research and Development Service, Veterans Affairs Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System, Los Angeles, CA 90073. kbclarkphd@yahoo.comwww.linkedin.com/pub/kevin-clark/58/67/19a Complex Biological Systems Alliance, North Andover, MA 01845. kevin.clark@cbsaimtt.com

Abstract

Contradicting new dual-pathway models of language evolution, cortico-striatal-thalamic circuitry disambiguate uncertainties in affective prosody and propositional linguistic content of language production and comprehension, predictably setting limits on useful complexity of articulate phonic and/or signed speech. Such limits likely evolved to ensure public information is discriminated by intended communicants and safeguarded against the ecological pressures of social eavesdropping within and across phylogenetic boundaries.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Arnold, K. & Zuberbühler, K. (2006) Semantic combinations in primate calls. Nature 441(7091):303.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bennett, C. H., Brassard, G., Crépeau, C., Jozsa, R., Peres, A. & Wootters, W. (1993) Teleporting an unknown quantum state via dual classical and EPR channels. Physical Review Letters 70:1895–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berta, M., Christandl, M., Colbeck, R., Renes, J. M. & Renner, R. (2010) The uncertainty principle in the presence of quantum memory. Nature Physics 6:659–62.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berwick, R. C., Okanoya, K., Beckers, G. J. L. & Bolhuis, J. J. (2011) Songs to syntax: The linguistics of birdsong. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 15(3):113–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Bolhuis, J. J., Okanoya, K. & Skarff, C. (2010) Twitter evolution: Converging mechanisms in birdsong and human speech. Nature Reviews Neuroscience 11(11):747–59.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Changizi, M. A. (2001) Universal scaling laws for hierarchical complexity in languages, organisms, behaviors and other combinatorial systems. Journal of Theoretical Biology 211(3):277–95.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chenery, H. J., Angwin, A. J. & Copeland, D. A. (2008) The basal circuits, dopamine, and ambiguous word processing: A neurobiological account of priming studies in Parkinson's disease. Journal of International Neuropsychology Society 14(3):351–64.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Chomsky, N. (1956) Three models for the description of language. IRE Transactions on Information Theory 2:113–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chomsky, N. (1966) Cartesian linguistics: A chapter in the history of rationalist thought. Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Clark, K. B. (2010) On classical and quantum error-correction in ciliate mate selection. Communicative & Integrative Biology 3(4):374–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, K. B. (2012) A statistical mechanics definition of insight. In: Computational intelligence, ed. Floares, A. G., pp. 139–62. Nova Science.Google Scholar
Clark, K. B. (2013a) Ciliates learn to diagnose and correct classical error syndromes in mating strategies. Frontiers in Microbiology 4:229.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Clark, K. B. (2013b) The mating judgments of microbes. In: Social learning theory: Phylogenetic considerations across animal, plant, and microbial taxa, ed. Clark, K. B., pp. 173200. Nova Science.Google Scholar
Clark, K. B. (in press) Entropic uncertainty of ciliate behavioral signals limits eavesdropping by mating rivals and predators. Frontiers in Microbiology.Google Scholar
Copeland, D. (2003) The basal ganglia and semantic engagement: Potential insights from semantic priming in individuals with subcortical vascular lesions, Parkinson's disease, and cortical lesions. Journal of International Neuropsychology Society 9(7):1041–52.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dabelsteen, T. (2004) Strategies that facilitate or counter eavesdropping on vocal interactions in songbirds. Anais de Academia Brasileirade Ciências 76(2):274–78.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dall, S. R. X. (2005) Information and its use by animals in evolutionary ecology. Trends in Ecological Evolution 20(4):187–93.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Danchin, E., Giraldeau, L. A., Valone, T. J. & Wagner, R. H. (2004) Public information: From nosy neighbours to cultural evolution. Science 305(5683):487–91.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Doupe, A. J., Perkel, D. J., Reiner, A. & Stern, E. A. (2005) Birdbrains could teach basal ganglia research a new song. Trends in Neurosciences 28(7):353–63.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Joint, I. (2006) Bacterial conversations: Talking, listening and eavesdropping. A NERC Discussion Meeting held at the Royal Society on 7 December 2005. Journal of the Royal Society Interface 3(8):459–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ketteler, D., Kastrau, F., Vohn, R. & Huber, W. (2008) The subcortical role of language processing. High level linguistic features such as ambiguity-resolution and the human brain: An fMRI study. NeuroImage 39(4):20022009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marques, J. F., Canessa, N. & Cappa, S. (2009) Neural differences in the processing of true and false sentences: Insights into the nature of “truth” in language comprehension. Cortex 45(6):759–68.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McNaughton, R. & Papert, S. (1971) Counter-free Automata. MIT Press.Google Scholar
Mestres-Missé, A., Turner, R. & Friederici, A. D. (2012) An anterior–posterior gradient of cognitive control within the dorsomedial striatum. NeuroImage 62(1):4147.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Nielsen, M. A. & Chuang, I. L. (2000) Quantum computation and quantum information. Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Ouattara, K., Lemasson, A. & Zuberbühler, K. (2009) Campbell's monkeys concatenate vocalizations into context-specific call sequences. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 106(51): 22026–31.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Peake, T. M. & McGregor, P. K. (2004) Information and aggression in fishes. Learning and Behavior 32(1):114–21.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Seyfarth, R. M. & Cheney, D. L. (2010) Production, usage, and comprehension in animal vocalizations. Brain and Language 115(1):92100.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Stowe, M. K., Turlings, T. C., Loughrin, J. H., Lewis, W. J. & Tumlinson, J. H. (1995) The chemistry of eavesdropping, alarm, and deceit. Proceedings of the National Academy of Science USA 92(1):2328.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Wittforth, M., Schröder, C., Schardt, D. M., Dengler, R., Heinze, H. J. & Kotz, S. A. (2010) On emotional conflict: Interference resolution of happy and angry prosody reveals valence-specific effects. Cerebral Cortex 20(2):383–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuberbühler, K. (2000a) Causal cognition in a nonhuman primate: Field playback experiments with Diana monkeys. Cognition 76(3):195207.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zuberbühler, K., Cheney, D. L. & Seyfarth, R. M. (1999) Conceptual semantics in a nonhuman primate. Journal of Comparative Psychology 113:3342.CrossRefGoogle Scholar