Abstract The communicative system is most developed in social animals and represents a determinative factor in human evolution. Here we address the possible evolutionary ways of the emergence and formation of speech functions. Specifically, we discuss the possibility of the formation of voluntary voice control at the early stages of Homo evolution on the anatomo-physiological basis of the gesture control system. The possible morphofunctional basis for the evolutionary emergence of speech is considered. The structure and connectivity of different regions of the cerebral cortex (temporal, inferior, parietal) are compared in humans and monkeys. Anatomy of the auditory cortex is well known to be relatively alike in different primate species, likewise are the pathways that link the auditory cortex with the associative areas of the anterior temporal cortex and the ventrolateral prefrontal cortex (human homologs of these structures form the ventral speech stream). At the same time, the pathways that link the auditory cortex with the ventral premotor and inferior motor cortex and make up in humans the dorsal speech stream are poorly developed in monkeys. The underdevelopment of this speech stream accounts for communication in monkeys based on gestural speech, because the morphological basis for voluntarily regulated vocalization and articulation has not yet formed during their evolution. The emergence of a sophisticated communication system based on oral speech may have been possible due to a gradual accumulation of evolutionary changes in speech-related and some other brain structures and, most importantly, a complication of connectivity between them. The evolution of speech is discussed in terms of its close association with tool use and labor activity.

中文翻译：

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口语中枢机制的演变

摘要 交际系统在社会性动物中最为发达，是人类进化的决定性因素。在这里，我们讨论了语音功能出现和形成的可能进化方式。具体来说，我们在手势控制系统的解剖生理基础上讨论了在人类进化的早期阶段形成自愿语音控制的可能性。考虑了语音进化出现的可能的形态功能基础。比较了人类和猴子大脑皮层不同区域（颞叶、下叶、顶叶）的结构和连通性。众所周知，不同灵长类动物的听觉皮层解剖结构相对相似，同样是将听觉皮层与前颞叶皮层和腹外侧前额叶皮层的相关区域联系起来的通路（这些结构的人类同源物形成腹侧语音流）。同时，将听觉皮层与腹侧前运动皮层和下运动皮层连接起来并构成人类背侧语音流的通路在猴子中发育不良。这种语音流的不发达解释了猴子基于手势语音的交流，因为在它们的进化过程中，自愿调节的发声和发音的形态基础尚未形成。由于语音相关和其他一些大脑结构的进化变化的逐渐积累，最重要的是它们之间连接的复杂性，基于口头语言的复杂通信系统的出现可能是可能的。语言的演变是根据其与工具使用和劳动活动的密切联系来讨论的。