Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-gbm5v Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T14:16:31.110Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Speech as a breakthrough signaling resource in the cognitive evolution of biological complex adaptive systems

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  17 December 2014

Tobias A. Mattei*
Affiliation:
Department of Neurosurgery – Brain & Spine Center / InvisionHealth, Buffalo, NY 14221. [email protected]://www.invisionhealth.com/providers/neurosurgery/tobias-mattei-md/

Abstract

In self-adapting dynamical systems, a significant improvement in the signaling flow among agents constitutes one of the most powerful triggering events for the emergence of new complex behaviors. Ackermann and colleagues' comprehensive phylogenetic analysis of the brain structures involved in acoustic communication provides further evidence of the essential role which speech, as a breakthrough signaling resource, has played in the evolutionary development of human cognition viewed from the standpoint of complex adaptive system analysis.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2014 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Aboitiz, F., García, R. R., Bosman, C. & Brunetti, E. (2006) Cortical memory mechanisms and language origins. Brain and Language 98:4056.Google Scholar
Braman, S. (2004) The emergent global information policy regime. In: The emergent global information policy regime, ed. Braman, S., pp. 1237. Palgrave Macmillan.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ellis, N. C. (2009) Language is a complex adaptive system: Position paper. Language Learning 59:126.Google Scholar
Fitch, W. T. (2006) The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective. Cognition 100:173215.Google Scholar
Gintis, H. (2006) The economy as a complex adaptive system. (Online paper). Available at: http://www.umass.edu/preferen/Class%20Material/Readings%20in%20Market%20Dynamics/Complexity%20Economics.pdf Google Scholar
Gomez Portillo, I. J. & Gleiser, P. M. (2009) An adaptive complex network model for brain functional networks. PLoS ONE 4(9):e6863.Google Scholar
Grilo, A., Caetano, A. & Rosa, A. (2002) Immune system simulation through a complex adaptive system model. In: Soft Computing and Industry, ed. Roy, R., Köppen, M., Ovaska, S., Furuhashi, T., & Hoffmann, F., pp. 675–98. Springer.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Holland, J. H. (2012) Signals and boundaries: Building blocks for complex adaptive systems. MIT Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Levin, S. A. (1998) Ecosystems and the biosphere as complex adaptive systems. Ecosystems 1:431–36.Google Scholar
Mauboussin, M. J. (2002) Revisiting market efficiency: The stock market as a complex adaptive system. Journal of Applied Corporate Finance 14:4755.Google Scholar
Phister, P. W. Jr. (2010) Cyberspace: The ultimate complex adaptive system. International C2 Journal 4:130.Google Scholar
Pinker, S. (2010) Colloquium paper: The cognitive niche: Coevolution of intelligence, sociality, and language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA 107:8993–99. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0914630107.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Rauschecker, J. P. (2012) Ventral and dorsal streams in the evolution of speech and language. Frontiers in Evolutionary Neuroscience 4:7. doi: 10.3389/fnevo.2012.00007.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Schwab, E. D. & Pienta, K. J. (1997) Modeling signal transduction in normal and cancer cells using complex adaptive systems. Medical Hypotheses 48:111–23.Google Scholar