Sub sections:
Evolution of brain lateralisation and the case against a single genetic event causing the evolution of language
Semester II 2004
Prof. Lesley Rogers
lrogers@pobox.une.edu.au
(Education 108, 11 October 2004, 12.15 pm)
AbstractDid language and its associated brain lateralization arise by a gradual process of evolution or as a saltatory change, marking the appearance of Homo sapiens? Tim Crow sees hemispheric asymmetry as "the defining feature of the human brain and the only plausible correlate of language" and "a feature not shared with other primates". He proposes that both brain lateralization and language were the outcome of a single genetic event on the Y chromosome that led to the de novo appearance of spoken language in the human male, thence sweeping rapidly through the human population by a process of sexual selection. I will discuss my objections to this belief in the uniqueness of human lateralization and with the postulated genetic event determining the saltatory evolution of language.