Abstract Language and complex tool use are often cited as behaviors unique to humans and
may be evolutionarily linked owing to the underlying cognitive processes they have in …

Understanding the link between brain evolution and the evolution of distinctive features of
modern human cognition is a fundamental challenge. A still unresolved question concerns …

INTRODUCTION Tool use is a hallmark of human evolution. Beyond its sensorimotor
components, the complexity of which has been extensively investigated, tool use affects …

Different disciplines converge to trace language evolution from motor skills. The human
ability to use tools has been advocated as a fundamental step toward the emergence of …

A number of theories about the evolution of language posit a close (and perhaps causal)
relationship between tool use and speech. Consistent with this idea, neuroimaging studies …

The present fMRI study tested predictions of the evolution-of-syntax framework which
analyzes certain structures as remnants (“fossils”) of a non-hierarchical (non-recursive) proto …

Language is an evolutionarily salient faculty for humans that relies on a distributed brain
network spanning across frontal, temporal, parietal, and subcortical regions. To understand …

In recent years a growing number of studies on syntactic processing has employed basic
two-word constructions (eg,“the tree”) to characterize the fundamental aspects of linguistic …

Abstract Language processing is an example of implicit learning of multiple statistical cues
that provide probabilistic information regarding word structure and use. Much of the current …

Background The popular theory that complex tool-making and language co-evolved in the
human lineage rests on the hypothesis that both skills share underlying brain processes and …