Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24827156›Full record

ReviewThe Behavioral and brain sciences2014

Brain mechanisms of acoustic communication in humans and nonhuman primates: an evolutionary perspective.

Hermann Ackermann, Steffen R Hage, Wolfram Ziegler

Abstract readReview
PubMed Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in The Behavioral and brain sciences, 2014. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 81 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
81citing papers in PubMed
20.3field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

81 citing papers in PubMed, 211 citations in OpenAlex.

  1. Multi-modal lesion mapping of expressive aprosodia.Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior · 2026
    Article
  2. Review
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  4. Nonlinear vocal phenomena and speech intelligibility.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025
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  5. Article
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  11. Review
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  15. Laughter and culture.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Review
  16. Review
  17. Article
  18. Vocal size exaggeration may have contributed to the origins of vocalic complexity.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2022
    Article
  19. Article
  20. Article

21 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.

Hermann AckermannNeurophonetics Group, Centre for Neurology - General Neurology, Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research, University of Tuebingen,D-72076 Tuebingen,Germany.hermann.ackermann@uni-tuebingen.dewww.hih-tuebingen.de/neurophonetik.
Steffen R HageNeurobiology of Vocal Communication Research Group, Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, and Institute for Neurobiology,Department of Biology,University of Tuebingen,D-72076 Tuebingen,Germany.steffen.hage@uni-tuebingen.dewww.vocalcommunication.de.
Wolfram ZieglerClinical Neuropsychology Research Group, City Hospital Munich-Bogenhausen,D-80992 Munich, andInstitute of Phonetics and Speech Processing, Ludwig-Maximilians-University,D-80799 Munich,Germany.wolfram.ziegler@extern.lrz-muenchen.dewww.ekn.mwn.de.
University of Tübingen · DE

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Any account of "what is special about the human brain" (Passingham 2008) must specify the neural basis of our unique ability to produce speech and delineate how these remarkable motor capabilities could have emerged in our hominin ancestors. Clinical data suggest that the basal ganglia provide a platform for the integration of primate-general mechanisms of acoustic communication with the faculty of articulate speech in humans. Furthermore, neurobiological and paleoanthropological data point at a two-stage model of the phylogenetic evolution of this crucial prerequisite of spoken language: (i) monosynaptic refinement of the projections of motor cortex to the brainstem nuclei that steer laryngeal muscles, presumably, as part of a "phylogenetic trend" associated with increasing brain size during hominin evolution; (ii) subsequent vocal-laryngeal elaboration of cortico-basal ganglia circuitries, driven by human-specific FOXP2 mutations.;>This concept implies vocal continuity of spoken language evolution at the motor level, elucidating the deep entrenchment of articulate speech into a "nonverbal matrix" (Ingold 1994), which is not accounted for by gestural-origin theories. Moreover, it provides a solution to the question for the adaptive value of the "first word" (Bickerton 2009) since even the earliest and most simple verbal utterances must have increased the versatility of vocal displays afforded by the preceding elaboration of monosynaptic corticobulbar tracts, giving rise to enhanced social cooperation and prestige. At the ontogenetic level, the proposed model assumes age-dependent interactions between the basal ganglia and their cortical targets, similar to vocal learning in some songbirds. In this view, the emergence of articulate speech builds on the "renaissance" of an ancient organizational principle and, hence, may represent an example of "evolutionary tinkering" (Jacob 1977).

Indexed as

Animal CommunicationBiological EvolutionCommunicationAnimalsHumansPrimatesSocial BehaviorSpeech

Identifiers

PMID24827156
OpenAlexW1969816564

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.