It was Eors Szathmary who likened language to an amoeba, and the human brain to the habitat in which it can thrive. The Hungarian scientist’s explanation for his choice of simile is that “a surprisingly large part of our brain can sustain language”. The idea first appeared in a paper that he published some ten years ago in collaboration with the ace British biologist John Maynard Smith.

There are two wide-spread beliefs about language. One is that only human brains are able to produce language as we know it, and the other is that this ability is confined to certain specific regions in the brain such as Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas. The first one still looks valid, but the second one needs to be updated. If those two “language areas” (so to speak) are damaged, others can take over.

In their paper, Smith and Szathmary tried to describe life’s great leaps forward — feats of organising and transmitting information from one generation to the next. The authors started with the origin of life itself and ended with the formation of language. We have no idea how our ancestors mastered syntax and grammar, which demand a very complex method of arranging clauses and thoughts. But we know it evolved just once.

Recently ‘The New Scientist’ came up with a chart of Life’s Top 10 Inventions. Taking a close look at their critical role in the evolutionary scheme of things, they said language has got to be the ultimate evolutionary innovation as far as our species are concerned. Because it is “central to most of what makes us special, from consciousness, empathy and mental time travel to symbolism, spirituality and morality”.

Why the language amoeba doesn’t colonize the brains of other animals, especially primates? Szathmary would say that the answer is in neural networks that are unique to humans. They made us wise to the complex hierarchical processing required for grammatical language. Both our genes (such as FOXP2, the first gene to be associated with language) and the human experience have contributed to the difference.

One decisive finding about primates is that the brains of newborn chimps are far more developed than those of newborn humans. This is an indication that our species-specific neural networks are shaped over many years of development, immersed in a linguistic ambit. Although humans and chimps share many genes, the versions expressed in human brains are more active than those in chimps.

SNEAK PREVIEW

* Boys tend to think fast-driving, bungee-jumping or other reckless activities can impress girls but, far otherwise, girls rather prefer cautious boys. The only people impressed by a boy’s pointless gambles are other boys. This is the discovery of William Farthing (University of Maine) who surveyed a hundred youngsters on their attitudes to risky scenarios. The study recommends more subtle routes to women’s affections. Status does matter. While men respect risk-taking males better, women go for high-status males. So if a risk taker has higher status, “women might like him for his status, even though they don’t like the risk-taking in itself”.

* A Sleeping person goes through a repeating sequence of three states: light sleep, deep sleep and REM sleep. At which stage you open your eyes can affect how you feel later. When someone or something disturbs you during a light phase, you are more likely to wake up perky. Enter SleepSmart. This device measures electrical activity of your brain while you are asleep and uses a clock to communicate with you. Set the clock as you please, and SleepSmart will wake you during the last light phase of the sleep span.

QUIZ NO.179

1. The Radar Range was no radar at all. It was a …

– Rock band
– Microwave oven
– Basketball team
– Sci-fi Island

1. Microwave oven

2. Which Indian actor had worked as a radio announcer for the BBC?

– Dev Anand
– Balraj Sahni
– Bharat Bhooshan
– Rajendra Kumar

2. Balraj Sahni

3. Which footballer has the bad reputation of spitting at other players and the crowd?

– Robbie Keane
– El-Hadji Diouf
– Gabriel Batistuta
– Miroslav Klose

3. El-Hadji Diouf

4. Who appeared as a motel manager in the movie ‘Me, Myself and Irene’?

– Mike Tyson
– Anna Kournikova
– Alfred Hitchcock
– Oprah Winfrey

4. Anna Kournikova

5. Who was also known as Saloth Sar?

– Pol Pot
– Desmond Tutu
– Tsar Nicholas II
– Genghis Khan

5. Pol Pot