ArticleCommunications biology2023
The relevance of the unique anatomy of the human prefrontal operculum to the emergence of speech.
Article in Communications biology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled 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.
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.
Who cites it
12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 17 citations in OpenAlex.
- Engagement of the speech motor system in challenging speech perception: Activation likelihood estimation meta-analyses.Human brain mapping · 2024Pooled it
- CIVET-Chimp: An automated pipeline for MRI-based cortical surface extraction in chimpanzees.Neuroimage. Reports · 2026Article
- Brain structure and function in Homo naledi.Brain structure & function · 2026Review
- Atlas of cortical sulcal imprints on Pan endocasts.Journal of anatomy · 2026Article
- Convergent and Divergent Connectivity Patterns of the Arcuate Fasciculus in Macaques and Humans.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2026Article
- The inferior frontal sulcus in the chimpanzee brain: morphological examination and association with oro-facial communication.Cerebral cortex (New York, N.Y. : 1991) · 2026Article
- Gateway to Syntax: On the Neural Origins of the Left Anterior Negativity and Their Functional Implications.Neurobiology of language (Cambridge, Mass.) · 2026Article
- The prefrontal operculum, a human-specific hub for the cognitive control of speech.Communications biology · 2025Article
- Identifying Tipping Points during Healthy Brain Aging through Single-Nucleus Transcriptomic Analysis.Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) · 2025Article
- Article
- The uniqueness of human vulnerability to brain aging in great ape evolution.Science advances · 2024Article
- Phylogenetic comparative analysis of the cerebello-cerebral system in 34 species highlights primate-general expansion of cerebellar crura I-II.Communications biology · 2023Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
11 authors at 5 institutions in 4 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Identifying the evolutionary origins of human speech remains a topic of intense scientific interest. Here we describe a unique feature of adult human neuroanatomy compared to chimpanzees and other primates that may provide an explanation of changes that occurred to enable the capacity for speech. That feature is the Prefrontal extent of the Frontal Operculum (PFOp) region, which is located in the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, adjacent and ventromedial to the classical Broca's area. We also show that, in chimpanzees, individuals with the most human-like PFOp, particularly in the left hemisphere, have greater oro-facial and vocal motor control abilities. This critical discovery, when combined with recent paleontological evidence, suggests that the PFOp is a recently evolved feature of human cortical structure (perhaps limited to the genus Homo) that emerged in response to increasing selection for cognitive and motor functions evident in modern speech abilities.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
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.