Towards a Computational Comparative Neuroprimatology: Framing the language-ready brain

• Models manual behavior and communication in monkey, ape and human to assess human brain evolution.
• Modeling macaque to hypothesize the nature of the last common ancestor of macaque and human (LCA-m).
• Dyadic modeling of 2 chimpanzees to distinguish LCA-m from last human-chimpanzee common ancestor.
• Modeling auditory dorsal and ventral streams in sentence comprehension.
• Modeling visual dorsal and ventral streams to define “what language is about”.

We make the case for developing a Computational Comparative Neuroprimatology to inform the analysis of the function and evolution of the human brain.First, we update the mirror system hypothesis on the evolution of the language-ready brain by (i) modeling action and action recognition and opportunistic scheduling of macaque brains to hypothesize the nature of the last common ancestor of macaque and human (LCA-m); and then we (ii) introduce dynamic brain modeling to show how apes could acquire gesture through ontogenetic ritualization, hypothesizing the nature of evolution from LCA-m to the last common ancestor of chimpanzee and human (LCA-c). We then (iii) hypothesize the role of imitation, pantomime, protosign and protospeech in biological and cultural evolution from LCA-c to Homo sapiens with a language-ready brain.Second, we suggest how cultural evolution in Homo sapiens led from protolanguages to full languages with grammar and compositional semantics.Third, we assess the similarities and differences between the dorsal and ventral streams in audition and vision as the basis for presenting and comparing two models of language processing in the human brain: A model of (i) the auditory dorsal and ventral streams in sentence comprehension; and (ii) the visual dorsal and ventral streams in defining “what language is about” in both production and perception of utterances related to visual scenes provide the basis for (iii) a first step towards a synthesis and a look at challenges for further research.