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In silico Evolutionary Developmental Neurobiology and the Origin of Natural Language

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Book cover Emergence of Communication and Language

Abstract

It is justified to assume that part of our genetic endowment contributes to our language skills, yet it is impossible to tell at this moment exactly how genes affect the language faculty. We complement experimental biological studies by an in silico approach in that we simulate the evolution of neuronal networks under selection for language-related skills. At the heart of this project is the Evolutionary Neurogenetic Algorithm (ENGA) that is deliberately biomimetic. The design of the system was inspired by important biological phenomena such as brain ontogenesis, neuron morphologies, and indirect genetic encoding. Neuronal networks were selected and were allowed to reproduce as a function of their performance in the given task. The selected neuronal networks in all scenarios were able to solve the communication problem they had to face. The most striking feature of the model is that it works with highly indirect genetic encoding–-just as brains do.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Collegium Budapest (Institute for Advanced Study), Hungary

    Eörs Szathmáry, Zoltán Szathmáry, Péter Ittzés, GeroŐ Orbaán, István Zachár, Ferenc Huszár, Anna Fedor, Máté Varga & Szabolcs Számadó

  2. Institute of Biology, Eötvös University, Budapest, Hungary

    Eörs Szathmáry, Zoltán Szathmáry, Péter Ittzés, GeroŐ Orbaán, Ferenc Huszár, Anna Fedor, Máté Varga & Szabolcs Számadó

  3. Parmenides Center for the Study of Thinking, München, Germany

    Eörs Szathmáry, Zoltán Szathmáry, Péter Ittzés, GeroŐ Orbaán, Ferenc Huszár, Anna Fedor, Máté Varga & Szabolcs Számadó

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  1. Eörs Szathmáry
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  2. Zoltán Szathmáry
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  3. Péter Ittzés
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  4. GeroŐ Orbaán
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  5. István Zachár
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  7. Anna Fedor
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  9. Szabolcs Számadó
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. School of Computer Science, University of Hertfordshire, Hatfield, UK

    Caroline Lyon  & Chrystopher L. Nehaniv  & 

  2. School of Computing Communications and Electronics, University of Plymouth, Plymouth, UK

    Angelo Cangelosi

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Szathmáry, E. et al. (2007). In silico Evolutionary Developmental Neurobiology and the Origin of Natural Language. In: Lyon, C., Nehaniv, C.L., Cangelosi, A. (eds) Emergence of Communication and Language. Springer, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-779-4_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-84628-779-4_8

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