Vocal production learning, the ability to modify the structure of vocalizations as a result of
hearing those of others, has been studied extensively in birds but less attention has been …

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 …

It is usually assumed that modern language is a recent phenomenon, coinciding with the
emergence of modern humans themselves. Many assume as well that this is the result of a …

An unresolved issue in comparative approaches to speech evolution is the apparent
absence of an intermediate vocal communication system between human speech and the …

Finding the evolutionary origins of human language in the communication systems of our
closest living relatives has, for the last several decades, been a major goal of many in the …

The Primate Origins of Human Nature (Volume 3 in The Foundations of Human Biology
series) blends several elements from evolutionary biology as applied to primate behavioral …

In his classic analysis, Gould (The mismeasure of man, WW Norton, New York, 1981)
demolished the idea that intelligence was an inherent, genetic trait of different human …

The evolution of vocal communication in humans required the emergence of not only
voluntary control of the vocal apparatus and a flexible vocal repertoire, but the capacity for …

In humans, individuals' social setting determines which and how language is acquired.
Social seclusion experiments show that sociality also guides vocal development in …

Vocal learning is the ability to modify vocal output on the basis of experience. Traditionally,
species have been classified as either displaying or lacking this ability. A recent proposal …