25 posts · 19,308 views
A blog (mostly) dedicated to language, its evolution and anything else in-between.
Wintz
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- July 22, 2010
- 04:18 PM
- 648 views
The Media Noose: Copycat Suicides and Social Learning
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
I always remember 2008 as the year when the entire UK media descended upon the former mining town of Bridgend. The reason: over the course of two years, 24 young people, most of whom were between the ages of 13 and 17, decided to commit suicide. At the time I . . . → Read More: The Media Noose: Copycat Suicides and Social Learning... Read more »
Mesoudi A. (2009) The cultural dynamics of copycat suicide. PloS one, 4(9). PMID: 19789643
- July 14, 2010
- 03:52 PM
- 661 views
Words as alleles: A null-model for language evolution?
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
For me, recent computational accounts of language evolution provide a compelling rationale that cultural, as opposed to biological, evolution is fundamental in understanding the design features of language. The basis for this rests on the simple notion of language being not only a conveyor of cultural information, but also a socially learned and culturally transmitted [...]... Read more »
Reali, F., & Griffiths, T. (2009) Words as alleles: connecting language evolution with Bayesian learners to models of genetic drift. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 277(1680), 429-436. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2009.1513
- July 8, 2010
- 08:01 AM
- 450 views
Can linguistic features reveal time depths as deep as 50,000 years ago?
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
Throughout much of our history language was transitory, existing only briefly within its speech community. The invention of writing systems heralded a way of recording some of its recent history, but for the most part linguists lack the stone tools archaeologists use to explore the early history of ancient technological industries. The question of how [...]... Read more »
Greenhill SJ, Atkinson QD, Meade A, & Gray RD. (2010) The shape and tempo of language evolution. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society. PMID: 20375050
- June 14, 2010
- 06:58 AM
- 610 views
Population size predicts technological complexity in Oceania
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
Here is a far-reaching and crucially relevant question for those of us seeking to understand the evolution of culture: Is there any relationship between population size and tool kit diversity or complexity? This question is important because, if met with an affirmative answer, then the emergence of modern human culture may be explained by changes [...]... Read more »
Kline MA, & Boyd R. (2010) Population size predicts technological complexity in Oceania. Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society. PMID: 20392733
- June 10, 2010
- 01:03 PM
- 444 views
Answering Wallace’s challenge: Relaxed Selection and Language Evolution
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
How does natural selection account for language? Darwin wrestled with it, Chomsky sidestepped it, and Pinker claimed to solve it. Discerning the evolution of language is therefore a much sought endeavour, with a vast number of explanations emerging that offer a plethora of choice, but little in the way of consensus. This is hardly new, [...]... Read more »
Deacon, T. (2010) Colloquium Paper: A role for relaxed selection in the evolution of the language capacity. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 107(Supplement_2), 9000-9006. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0914624107
- June 2, 2010
- 03:46 PM
- 450 views
Experiments in cultural transmission and human cultural evolution
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
For those of you familiar with the formal mathematical models of cultural evolution (Cavalli-Sforza & Feldman, 1981; Boyd & Richerson, 1985), you’ll know there is a substantive body of literature behind the process of cultural transmission. It comes as a surprise, then, that experiments in this area are generally lacking. For instance, if we look [...]... Read more »
Mesoudi, A., & Whiten, A. (2008) Review. The multiple roles of cultural transmission experiments in understanding human cultural evolution. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1509), 3489-3501. DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2008.0129
- May 31, 2010
- 05:50 PM
- 513 views
Cultural innovation, Pleistocene environments and demographic change
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
It is well documented that Thomas Robert Malthus’ An Essay on the Principle of Population greatly influenced both Charles Darwin and Alfred Russell Wallace’s independent conception of their theory of natural selection. In it, Malthus puts forward his observation that the finite nature of resources is in conflict with the potentially exponential rate of reproduction, [...]... Read more »
Richerson PJ, Boyd R, & Bettinger RL. (2009) Cultural innovations and demographic change. Human biology; an international record of research, 81(2-3), 211-35. PMID: 19943744
- May 31, 2010
- 06:45 AM
- 489 views
Phylogenetics, Cultural Evolution and Horizontal Transmission
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
For some time now, evolutionary biologists have used phylogenetics. It is a well-established, powerful set of tools that allow us to test evolutionary hypotheses. More recently, however, these methods are being imported to analyse linguistic and cultural phenomena. For instance, the use of phylogenetics has led to observations that languages evolve in punctuational bursts, explored [...]... Read more »
Lycett SJ, Collard M, & McGrew WC. (2009) Cladistic analyses of behavioural variation in wild Pan troglodytes: exploring the chimpanzee culture hypothesis. Journal of human evolution, 57(4), 337-49. PMID: 19762070
Greenhill, S., Currie, T., & Gray, R. (2009) Does horizontal transmission invalidate cultural phylogenies?. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 276(1665), 2299-2306. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2008.1944
- May 29, 2010
- 01:27 PM
- 396 views
The Movius Line Represents the Crossing of a Demographic Threshold
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
When examining the dispersal of Pleistocene hominins, one of the more fascinating debates concern the patterns of biological and technological evolution in East Asia and other regions of the Old World. One suggestion emerging from palaeoanthropological research places a demarcation between these two regions in the form of a geographical division known as the Movius Line. Specifically, the suggestions that initially led to the Movius Line were based on observations of differing technological patterns, namely: the lack of Acheulean handaxes and the Levallois core traditions in East Asia.... Read more »
Lycett, S., & Norton, C. (2010) A demographic model for Palaeolithic technological evolution: The case of East Asia and the Movius Line. Quaternary International, 211(1-2), 55-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2008.12.001
- May 29, 2010
- 01:13 PM
- 402 views
The Movius Line represents the crossing of a demographic threshold
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
When examining the dispersal of Pleistocene hominins, one of the more fascinating debates concern the patterns of biological and technological evolution in East Asia and other regions of the Old World. One suggestion emerging from palaeoanthropological research places a demarcation between these two regions in the form of a geographical division known as the Movius [...]... Read more »
Lycett, S., & Norton, C. (2010) A demographic model for Palaeolithic technological evolution: The case of East Asia and the Movius Line. Quaternary International, 211(1-2), 55-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2008.12.001
- March 5, 2010
- 06:00 PM
- 682 views
Culture and the human genome: a synthesis of genetics and the human sciences
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
Humans are immersed in culture from birth. It is so fundamental to our experience, and what it means to be human itself, yet we often overlook the consideration that “cultural practices might have transformed the selection pressures acting on humans” (Laland, Odling-Smee & Myles, 2010, pg. 137).
For those of you with some sort of investment in human evolution, it’ll be quite clear that gaps between culture and biology are being broached by a variety of researchers. Anthropologists are highlighting how cultural practices rapidly modify environmental conditions and subsequently impact upon allele frequencies (Holden & Mace, 1997).... Read more »
Laland KN, Odling-Smee J, & Myles S. (2010) How culture shaped the human genome: bringing genetics and the human sciences together. Nature reviews. Genetics, 11(2), 137-48. PMID: 20084086
- February 21, 2010
- 06:19 PM
- 539 views
Cumulative Culture Evolved to Rapidly Coordinate Novel Behaviours
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
In the deliberations over humanity and its perceived uniqueness, a link is frequently made between our ability to support a rich, diverse culture and the origin of complex human behaviour. Yet what is often overlooked in our view of these two, clearly connected phenomena is the thread that weaves them together: the ability to coordinate [...]... Read more »
Chater, N. . (2009) Language Acquisition Meets Language Evolution. Cognitive Science. info:/10.1111/j.1551-6709.2009.01049.x
Laland KN, Odling-Smee J, & Myles S. (2010) How culture shaped the human genome: bringing genetics and the human sciences together. Nature reviews. Genetics, 11(2), 137-48. PMID: 20084086
Lycett, S., & Norton, C. (2010) A demographic model for Palaeolithic technological evolution: The case of East Asia and the Movius Line. Quaternary International, 211(1-2), 55-65. DOI: 10.1016/j.quaint.2008.12.001
- October 7, 2009
- 03:58 PM
- 758 views
What conclusions can we draw from Neanderthal DNA pt.2
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
4. Nuclear DNA: Forays into 3 billion base pairs
4.1 Before Vi-80
The Vindija-80 (Vi-80) specimen is an important find for geneticists: it yielded a minimally contaminated sample and provided those first steps into Neanderthal genomics.
Previously, attempts at retrieving ancient nuclear DNA sequences proved to be a notoriously difficult process, plagued with problems of degradation, contamination and [...]... Read more »
Green, R., Krause, J., Ptak, S., Briggs, A., Ronan, M., Simons, J., Du, L., Egholm, M., Rothberg, J., Paunovic, M.... (2006) Analysis of one million base pairs of Neanderthal DNA. Nature, 444(7117), 330-336. DOI: 10.1038/nature05336
Briggs AW, Good JM, Green RE, Krause J, Maricic T, Stenzel U, Lalueza-Fox C, Rudan P, Brajkovic D, Kucan Z.... (2009) Targeted retrieval and analysis of five Neandertal mtDNA genomes. Science (New York, N.Y.), 325(5938), 318-21. PMID: 19608918
Krause J, Lalueza-Fox C, Orlando L, Enard W, Green RE, Burbano HA, Hublin JJ, Hänni C, Fortea J, de la Rasilla M.... (2007) The derived FOXP2 variant of modern humans was shared with Neandertals. Current biology : CB, 17(21), 1908-12. PMID: 17949978
Lalueza-Fox C, Römpler H, Caramelli D, Stäubert C, Catalano G, Hughes D, Rohland N, Pilli E, Longo L, Condemi S.... (2007) A melanocortin 1 receptor allele suggests varying pigmentation among Neanderthals. Science (New York, N.Y.), 318(5855), 1453-5. PMID: 17962522
Coop, G., Bullaughey, K., Luca, F., & Przeworski, M. (2008) The Timing of Selection at the Human FOXP2 Gene. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 25(7), 1257-1259. DOI: 10.1093/molbev/msn091
- October 6, 2009
- 04:53 PM
- 837 views
What conclusions can we draw from Neanderthal DNA pt.1
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
In recent times, genetic technology has progressed sufficiently to elucidate upon some of the questions normally preserved for archaeologists. One such question concerns the fate of a group of hominins that roamed Europe and East Asia for at least 250,000 years. During this time, this species adapted and endured some of the harshest environments on [...]... Read more »
Blum MG, & Rosenberg NA. (2007) Estimating the number of ancestral lineages using a maximum-likelihood method based on rejection sampling. Genetics, 176(3), 1741-57. PMID: 17435232
Green, R., Malaspinas, A., Krause, J., Briggs, A., Johnson, P., Uhler, C., Meyer, M., Good, J., Maricic, T., & Stenzel, U. (2008) A Complete Neandertal Mitochondrial Genome Sequence Determined by High-Throughput Sequencing. Cell, 134(3), 416-426. DOI: 10.1016/j.cell.2008.06.021
- October 5, 2009
- 08:49 PM
- 958 views
The arcuate fasciculus within the dual stream model pt.2
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
3.1 What is the dual stream model?
Given these separate anatomical accounts, attributing a function(s) to the arcuate is not clear cut, and any current account is far from the authoritative statement on the matter. Nonetheless, a vast majority of literature does place the arcuate as part of the dual stream model[1] of speech processing, although [...]... Read more »
Hickok, G. (2004) Dorsal and ventral streams: a framework for understanding aspects of the functional anatomy of language. Cognition, 92(1-2), 67-99. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2003.10.011
Glasser, M., & Rilling, J. (2008) DTI Tractography of the Human Brain's Language Pathways. Cerebral Cortex, 18(11), 2471-2482. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn011
Schmahmann, J., Pandya, D., Wang, R., Dai, G., D'Arceuil, H., de Crespigny, A., & Wedeen, V. (2007) Association fibre pathways of the brain: parallel observations from diffusion spectrum imaging and autoradiography. Brain, 130(3), 630-653. DOI: 10.1093/brain/awl359
- October 2, 2009
- 03:40 PM
- 979 views
Discerning the role of the arcuate fasciculus in speech processing pt.1
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
Originally identified by Reil (1809) and subsequently named by Burdach (1819), the arcuate fasciculus is a white-matter, neural pathway that intersects with both the lateral temporal cortex and frontal cortex via a “dorsal projection that arches around the Sylvain fissure.” (Rilling et al., 2008, pg. 426). Classical hypotheses saw this pathway as a critical component [...]... Read more »
CATANI, M., & MESULAM, M. (2008) The arcuate fasciculus and the disconnection theme in language and aphasia: History and current state. Cortex, 44(8), 953-961. DOI: 10.1016/j.cortex.2008.04.002
Glasser, M., & Rilling, J. (2008) DTI Tractography of the Human Brain's Language Pathways. Cerebral Cortex, 18(11), 2471-2482. DOI: 10.1093/cercor/bhn011
- September 28, 2009
- 03:53 PM
- 933 views
Broca’s area and the processing of hierarchically organised sequences pt.2
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
3. Neurological processing of hierarchically organised sequences in non-linguistic domains
A broader perspective sees grammar as just one of many hierarchically organised behaviours being processed in similar, prefrontal neurological regions (Greenfield, 1991; Givon, 1998). As Broca’s area is found to be functionally salient in grammatical processing, it is logical to assume that this is place to [...]... Read more »
Maess B, Koelsch S, Gunter TC, & Friederici AD. (2001) Musical syntax is processed in Broca's area: an MEG study. Nature neuroscience, 4(5), 540-5. PMID: 11319564
Koechlin E, & Jubault T. (2006) Broca's area and the hierarchical organization of human behavior. Neuron, 50(6), 963-74. PMID: 16772176
Stout D, Toth N, Schick K, & Chaminade T. (2008) Neural correlates of Early Stone Age toolmaking: technology, language and cognition in human evolution. Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences, 363(1499), 1939-49. PMID: 18292067
- September 27, 2009
- 07:17 AM
- 990 views
Broca’s area and the processing of hierarchically organised sequences pt.1
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
Ever since its discovery in 1861, Broca’s area (named after its discoverer, Paul Broca) has been inextricably linked with language (Grodzinsky and Santi, 2008). Found in the left hemisphere of the Pre-Frontal Cortex (PFC), Broca’s region traditionally[1] comprises of Broadmann’s areas (BA) 44 and 45 (Hagoort, 2005). Despite being relegated in its status as the [...]... Read more »
Bahlmann J, Schubotz RI, & Friederici AD. (2008) Hierarchical artificial grammar processing engages Broca's area. NeuroImage, 42(2), 525-34. PMID: 18554927
Musso M, Moro A, Glauche V, Rijntjes M, Reichenbach J, Büchel C, & Weiller C. (2003) Broca's area and the language instinct. Nature neuroscience, 6(7), 774-81. PMID: 12819784
Hagoort, P. (2005) On Broca, brain, and binding: a new framework. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9(9), 416-423. DOI: 10.1016/j.tics.2005.07.004
- September 1, 2009
- 10:58 AM
- 863 views
Olfactory communication and mate choice
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
From the regulation and reproduction in bacteria colonies (Bassler, 2002) to complex smell and taste systems of humans (Van Toller & Dodd, 1988), the ability of sensing chemical stimuli, known as chemosensation, is believed to be the most basic and ubiquitous of senses (Bhutta, 2007). One strain of thought places chemosensation as merely an evolved [...]... Read more »
Bhutta, M. (2007) Sex and the nose: human pheromonal responses. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine, 100(6), 268-274. DOI: 10.1258/jrsm.100.6.268
Havlicek, J., & Roberts, S. (2009) MHC-correlated mate choice in humans: A review. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 34(4), 497-512. DOI: 10.1016/j.psyneuen.2008.10.007
- August 31, 2009
- 03:17 PM
- 765 views
Iterated Learning and Language Evolution
by Wintz in A Replicated Typo
If we accept that language is not only a conveyer of cultural information, but it is itself a socially learned and culturally transmitted system, then an individual’s linguistic knowledge is the result of observing the linguistic behaviour of others. This well attested process of language acquisition is often termed Iterated Learning, and it opens up [...]... Read more »
Swarup, S., & Gasser, L. (2009) The Iterated Classification Game: A New Model of the Cultural Transmission of Language. Adaptive Behavior, 17(3), 213-235. DOI: 10.1177/1059712309105818
Dediu, D. (2009) Genetic biasing through cultural transmission: Do simple Bayesian models of language evolution generalise?. Journal of Theoretical Biology, 259(3), 552-561. DOI: 10.1016/j.jtbi.2009.04.004
Kirby S, Dowman M, & Griffiths TL. (2007) Innateness and culture in the evolution of language. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104(12), 5241-5. PMID: 17360393
Reali F, & Griffiths TL. (2009) The evolution of frequency distributions: relating regularization to inductive biases through iterated learning. Cognition, 111(3), 317-28. PMID: 19327759
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