What happened to Homo habilis? (Language and mirror neurons)

Journal/Book: Behav Brain Sci. 1998; 21: 40 West 20TH Street, New York, NY 10011-4211. Cambridge Univ Press. 527-528.

Abstract: The evolutionary continuity between the prespeech functions of premotor cortex and its new linguistic functions, the main thesis of MacNeilage's target article, is confirmed by the recent discovery of ''mirror'' neurons in monkeys and a corresponding action-observation/action-execution matching system in humans. Physiological data (and other considerations) appear to indicate, however, that brachiomanual gestures played a greater role in language evolution than MacNeilage would like to admit.

Note: Editorial Rizzolatti G, Univ PARMA, Ist Fisiol Umana, I-43100 PARMA, ITALY

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