Why did only human beings develop the ability to communicate if it makes us so powerful? You'd think another specues would evolve as competition at some point.

submitted by yabbit from self.AskSaidIt

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[–]magnora7 9 insightful - 2 fun9 insightful - 1 fun10 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

I think humans have the ability to talk because we have the ability to talk to ourselves in our minds, which arises because our brain structure has folded on itself to where the temporal lobe touches the frontal lobe, creating a neural bridge. This bridge is called "Werneke's area" and "Brocas area" and if it is severed, a person cannot talk to themselves quietly in their own mind. Losing this ability is often paired with losing the ability to speak, or understand speech.

https://www.sltinfo.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/01/Brocas-and-Wernickes-areas.jpg

No other animals have a brain like this, where part of the cortex is folded over to touch a completely different part of the cortex. I think this structure, encoded in our genes, is what gives us this special ability. I also think that's why humans like music and animals don't care about it. We have a built-in audio looper.

[–]Markimus 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

But there are people with no inner monologue who can speak, any idea on what's the deal with that?

I also think that's why humans like music and animals don't care about it. We have a built-in audio looper.

Big disagree. All animals like music, I've seen many animals vibing to tunes.

[–][deleted] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

You're also 100% right, animals do enjoy music. As an example, /u/Optimus85 just posted this to /s/Life: https://saidit.net/s/Life/comments/8sm5/playing_banjo_for_a_wild_fox_he_came_back_for_an/

There's many things happening in this video. Pay attention to the foxes ears, nose & body language (foxes can sense vibrations with their nose, it's so sensitive). The fact that the Fox is constantly bobbing its head, twitching its ears and scrunching it's nose, not only shows it's enjoying the music, but it also shows how curious about the music it is.

It's also a perfect example of animals forming schemas and behaviorism; The fox sits in a certain spot when the dude starts playing. As the fox gets comfortable and starts to relax around the human and enjoy the music, it starts to get closer to him and walk around him, even putting it's back, to the human's back at one point. Wild animals do not give you their back; that could mean their death (so either it really liked the music, or this isn't the first time this happened and the Fox has come to visit them before).

The truly telling thing that fox does, that shows it's forming a schema in it's head and enjoys the music, is when the music ends, note it goes back to the same exact spot where it was when the music started, and sits down like it did the first time (almost as if it thinks being in the spot, and sitting there was what made the music happen. The fox is thinking "If I sit here, the music will start again, as it started when I sat here before). It may sound like nonsense, but really, look it up. Intelligent animals are able to form schemas and plans, they're curious and do think, and they also do think in terms of "I". So they have awareness of self. "if I do this, then this happens". That's what the fox is doing when the music ends and it makes a circle going to the exact spot it was in when the music started.

But there are people with no inner monologue who can speak, any idea on what's the deal with?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u69YSh-cFXY

This isn't a new human behavior, but it's only starting to get a lot of attention now. It's still being studied. The above video is from a doctor, interviewing a young woman who has that "problem" (if you call it a problem, it seems like she's coasting through life 2 me lol, no depression, no suicidal ideation, no worrying about the future). There are theories about this. I've read a few reliable research studies (from recognized and respected institutions/journals) that were peer-reviewed, that actually theorize this is a type/or symptom of being very high functioning, on the autism spectrum. They can function better than a lot of "normal people", and are usually intelligent and productive to boot.

These people also actually have a lot in common with APD (like the lack of empathy) - but it doesn't come from a nefarious or manipulative or "idgaf" place - those thoughts ("I can relate to that, putting myself in their shoes and pretending to be them, they must be suffering"), just don't come to them.

Honestly, there is not a lot of medical research/info out on this topic right now, but it is being studied and it has become so widespread that the research community has taken note.