A prerequisite for copying innovative behaviour faithfully is the capacity of observers' brains,
regarded as 'hierarchically mechanistic minds', to overcome cognitive 'surprisal'(see 2.), by …

The phonetic potential of nonhuman primate vocal tracts has been the subject of
considerable contention in recent literature. Here, the work of Philip Lieberman (1934 …

Publisher Summary This chapter reveals a methodology of assessing basic academic skills
focused on problem solving that has been designed to evaluate a student's skills and …

Abstract Changes in potential regulatory elements are thought to be key drivers of
phenotypic divergence. However, identifying changes to regulatory elements that underlie …

This paper argues that the origins of language can be detected one million years ago, if not
earlier, in the archaeological record of Homo erectus. This controversial claim is based on a …

Gene regulatory divergence is thought to play a central role in determining human-specific
traits. However, our ability to link divergent regulation to divergent phenotypes is limited …

The genetic basis of the human vocal system is largely unknown, as are the sequence
variants that give rise to individual differences in voice and speech. Here, we couple data on …

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

The origins of human speech are obscure; it is still unclear what aspects are unique to our
species or shared with our evolutionary cousins, in part due to a lack of a common …

The anatomy of the auditory region of fossil hominins may shed light on the emergence of
human spoken language. Humans differ from other great apes in several features of the …