Human sound systems are shaped by post-Neolithic changes in bite configuration

Blasí, Damián E.; Moran, Steven; Moisik, Scott R.; Widmer, Paul; Dediu, Dan; Bickel, Balthasar

doi:10.1126/science.aav3218

Cited by 156 publications

(143 citation statements)

References 77 publications

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“…These results are interesting in light of a recent study that used paleoanthropology, speech biomechanics, ethnography, and historical linguistics to show that changes in human bite configuration and speech-sound inventories occurred after the Neolithic period, potentially due to advances in food-processing technologies 50 . Thus, it is plausible that the consequent increases in the diversity of sounds produced may have led to a subtle, but consistent, selection of alleles increasing cortical SA in brain regions with relevance for speech.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

The Evolutionary History of Common Genetic Variants Influencing Human Cortical Surface Area

Tilot

Khramtsova

Grasby

et al. 2019

Preprint

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Structural brain changes along the lineage that led to modern Homo sapiens have contributed to our unique cognitive and social abilities. However, the evolutionarily relevant molecular variants impacting key aspects of neuroanatomy are largely unknown. Here, we integrate evolutionary annotations of the genome at diverse timescales with common variant associations from large-scale neuroimaging genetic screens in living humans, to reveal how selective pressures have shaped neocortical surface area. We show that variation within human gained enhancers active in the developing brain is associated with global surface area as well as that of specific regions. Moreover, we find evidence of recent polygenic selection over the past 2,000 years influencing surface area of multiple cortical regions, including those involved in spoken language and visual processing.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 81%

The Evolutionary History of Common Genetic Variants Influencing Human Cortical Surface Area

Tilot

Khramtsova

Grasby

et al. 2019

Preprint

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“…In sum, our results support the notion that individual families and areas might not follow the overall trend. Crucially, we spell this out clearly in the main text (Blasi et al 2019) :…”

Section: Marginal Vs Conditional Modelsmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…

In Blasi et al (2019) we have shown, through a series of statistical analyses and models, that human sound systems have been affected by a transition in bite configuration starting from the Neolithic. Tarasov and Uyeda (2020) (henceforth T&U) raise a number of observations in relation to our article.

…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Languages, evolution and statistics: human sound systems were shaped by changes in bite configuration.Response to Tarasov & Uyeda (2020)

Blasí

Moran

Moisik

et al. 2020

Preprint

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In Blasi et al. (2019) we have shown, through a series of statistical analyses and models, that human sound systems have been affected by a transition in bite configuration starting from the Neolithic. Tarasov and Uyeda (2020) (henceforth T&U) raise a number of observations in relation to our article. We appreciate T&U's engagement with our work and their sharing of the code and data of the analyses reported. In brief, their technical comment involves five analyses: Binomial Causal Models (BCM) 2. Linear Regression of across-area variation in labiodentals and subsistence 3. Predictive Posterior Simulations (PPS) 4. Poisson Linear Regression (PLR): model comparison 5. Phylogenetic AnalysesIn what follows, we show that the discrepancies they report between our findings and theirs are due mostly to ill-specified models, weak (or missing) statistical evidence, and a misinterpretation of our results. After these issues are addressed, we conclude that T&U's claims do not hold.

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“…Thus, it seems that this particular type of gesture-speech F0 and intensity synchrony (excluding possibly other types), may arise naturally from gesture-speech physics. If these findings are on track, then this form of gesture-speech coupling should not be seen as an arbitrary cultural convention, but rather as an embodied innovation (e.g., Blasi et al, 2019;Cwiek & Fuchs, 2019;Hardus, Lameira, Schaik, & Wich, 2009).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Energy flows in gesture-speech physics: Exploratory findings and pre-registration of confirmatory analysis

Pouw¹,

Sa²,

Ne³

et al. 2019

Preprint

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A well-known phenomenon of multimodal language is the synchronous coupling of prosodic contours in speech with salient kinematic changes in co-speech hand-gesture motions. Invariably, such coupling has been rendered by psychologists to require a dedicated neural-cognitive mechanism preplanning speech and gesture trajectories. Recently, in a continuous vocalization task, it was found that acoustic peaks unintentionally appear in vocalizations when gesture motions reach peaks in physical impetus, suggesting a biomechanical basis for gesture-speech synchrony (Pouw, Harrison, & Dixon, 2019). However, from this rudimentary study it is still difficult to draw strong conclusions about gesture-speech dynamics in (more) complex speech and the precise biomechanical nature of these effects. Here we assess how the timing of physical impetus of a gesture relates to its effect on acoustic parameters of mono-syllabic consonant-vowel (CV) vocalization(/pa/). Furthermore, we assess how chest-wall kinematics is affected by gesturing, and whether this modulates the effect of gestures on acoustics. In the current exploratory analysis, we analyze a subset (N = 4) of an already collected dataset (N = 36), which serves as the basis for a pre-registration of the confirmatory analyses yet to be completed. Here we provide exploratory evidence that gestures affect acoustics (amplitude envelope and F0) as well as chest-wall kinematics during mono-syllabic vocalizations. These effects are more extreme when a gesture’s peak impetus occurs closer to the center of the vowel vocalization event. If the current findings can be replicated in confirmatory fashion, there is a more compelling case to be made that gesture-speech physics is important facet of multimodal synchrony.

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Human sound systems are shaped by post-Neolithic changes in bite configuration

Cited by 156 publications

References 77 publications

The Evolutionary History of Common Genetic Variants Influencing Human Cortical Surface Area

The Evolutionary History of Common Genetic Variants Influencing Human Cortical Surface Area

Languages, evolution and statistics: human sound systems were shaped by changes in bite configuration.Response to Tarasov & Uyeda (2020)

Energy flows in gesture-speech physics: Exploratory findings and pre-registration of confirmatory analysis

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