Language primarily evolved as a vocal medium that transmits the attributes of human culture and the necessities of daily communication. Human language has a long, complex evolutionary history. Language also serves as an instrument of thought since it has become evident that in the course of this process neural circuits that initially evolved to regulate motor control, motor responses to external events, and ultimately talking were recycled to serve tasks such as working memory, cognitive flexibility linguistic tasks such as comprehending distinctions in meaning conveyed by syntax. This precludes the human brain possessing an organ devoted exclusively to language, such as the Faculty of Language proposed by Chomsky (1972, 2012). In essence like Fodor's (1983) modular model, a restatement of archaic phrenological theories (Spurzheim, 1815). The subcortical basal ganglia can be traced back to early anurans. Although our knowledge of the neural circuits of the human brain is at a very early stage and incomplete, the findings of independent studies over the past 40 years, discussed here, have identified circuits linking the basal ganglia with various areas of prefrontal cortex, posterior cortical regions and other subcortical structures. These circuits are active in linguistic tasks such as lexical access, comprehending distinctions in meaning conferred by syntax and the range of higher cognitive tasks involving executive control and play a critical role in conferring cognitive flexibility. The cingulate cortex which appeared in Therapsids, transitional mammal-like reptiles who lived in age of the dinosaurs, most likely enhanced mother-infant interaction, contributing to success in the Darwinian (1859) "Struggle for Existence" - the survival of progeny. They continue to fill that role in present-day mammals as well as being involved in controlling laryngeal phonation during speech and directing attention (Newman & MacLean, 1983; Cummings, 1993". The cerebellum and hippocampus, archaic structures, play role in cognition. Natural selection acting on genetic and epigenetic events in the last 500,000 years enhanced human cognitive and linguistic capabilities. It is clear that human language did not suddenly come into being 70,000 to 100,000 years as Noam Chomsky (Bolhuis et al., 2014) and others claim. The archeological record and analyses of fossil and genetic evidence shows that Neanderthals, who diverged from the human line at least 500,000 years ago possessed some form of language. Nor did the human population suddenly acquire the capability to relate two seemingly unrelated concepts by means of associative learning 100,000 years ago, re-coined "Merge" by Chomsky and his adherents, Merge supposedly is the key to syntax but associative learning, one of the cognitive processes by which children learn languages and the myriad complexities of their cultures, is a capability present in dogs and virtually all animals.

中文翻译：

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语言和思想的演变。

语言最初是作为声音介质传播的，它传达了人类文化的特征和日常交流的必要性。人类语言具有悠久而复杂的进化历史。语言也可以作为一种思维工具，因为很明显，在此过程中，神经回路最初演变为调节运动控制，运动对外部事件的反应，最终是说话，它们被循环利用来完成诸如工作记忆，认知等任务。灵活的语言任务，例如理解语法所传达的含义上的区别。这就排除了人脑拥有专门致力于语言的器官，例如乔姆斯基（Chomsky，1972，2012）提出的语言学院。从本质上讲，就像Fodor（1983）的模块化模型一样，它是对古老的颅相学理论的重述（Spurzheim，1815年）。皮质下基底神经节可以追溯到早期无核。尽管我们对人脑神经回路的知识还处于早期，并且还不完整，但是这里讨论的过去40年的独立研究发现已经确定了将基底神经节与额叶前皮层，后皮质的各个区域联系起来的回路区域和其他皮质下结构。这些电路活跃于语言任务中，例如词汇访问，理解语法赋予的意义上的区别以及涉及执行控制的高级认知任务的范围，并且在赋予认知灵活性方面起着至关重要的作用。扣带状皮层出现在Therapsids（一种生活在恐龙时代的过渡性哺乳动物样爬行动物）中，最有可能增强了母婴互动，为达尔文主义（1859年）“为生存而斗争”的成功-后代的生存做出了贡献。他们继续在当今的哺乳动物中扮演这一角色，并参与控制说话时的喉部发声和引导注意力（Newman＆MacLean，1983； Cummings，1993”。小脑和海马的古老结构在认知中发挥着作用。在过去的500,000年中，自然选择作用于遗传和表观遗传事件，增强了人类的认知和语言能力，很明显，人类语言并没有像Noam Chomsky（Bolhuis等人，2014）和其他人声称的那样突然形成了70,000至100,000年。 。考古记录以及对化石和遗传证据的分析表明，尼安德特人与人类界的背离至少有500人，000年前拥有某种形式的语言。人口也没有突然通过100,000年前的联想学习获得将两个看似无关的概念联系起来的能力，而是由乔姆斯基及其拥护者重新定义为“合并”。据说合并是语法的关键，但联想学习是语法学习的关键之一狗和几乎所有动物都具有一种能力，儿童可以通过这种认知过程来学习语言和其文化的多种复杂性。