AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 246, Issue 6 915-R921, Copyright © 1984 by American Physiological Society
Common origin of linguistic and movement abilities
K. L. Bellman and L. J. Goldberg
We start with the view that the development of systems of symbols is rooted
in the regulation of cellular processes and the behavior of unicellular
animals. Animals would thereafter start to externalize these internal
symbol systems, to coordinate movements with each other. We propose that
the brains of multicellular animals can be understood as a continuing
elaboration of the early chemical symbol systems of unicellular animals:
the labile symbols of the unicellular animal are replaced by hormones, more
stable chemical compounds, and nerves that are seen as more stable and more
specific routes of activation; and brains developed layers of symbols such
that the domain of a symbol is not a set of bodily processes but rather a
set of brain processes. Human language is very much in the "style" of the
rule-governed symbol manipulation required by all behaving animals,
although unique in its complexity. We suggest that the essential question
is not how humans have evolved symbolic and linguistic abilities from a
primitive sensorimotor brain but rather how do symbols come to exist in
biological systems and what is useful and necessary about a system of
symbols for the coordination of action within animals and among animals.
