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The core language network separated from other networks during primate evolution

Nature Reviews Neuroscience volume 26, pages 131–132 (2025)Cite this article

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In their Review article earlier this year, Fedorenko, Ivanova & Regev (Fedorenko, E., Ivanova, A. A. & Regev, T. I. The language network as a natural kind within the broader landscape of the human brain. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 25, 289–312 (2024))1 propose a functional separation between the core language network and other perceptual, motor and higher-level cognitive components of communication-related networks in the left hemisphere of the human brain. In the ‘Open questions and a way forward’1 section that ends their Review, the authors discuss the need for cross-species comparative research to disentangle how these brain networks came to support human language. Here, we suggest that the authors’ functional separation of a core language network and other components in the human brain is grounded in the evolution of two separate structural networks within primate brains.

Cross-species analyses revealed that these two dorsal structural networks have different evolutionary trajectories, both in the target regions of the fibre tracts and their laterality4,5,6 (Fig. 1). During evolution, the target region BA44 in the left IFG expanded in humans (as compared to chimpanzees) and has changed its function partly from a motor and communicative-related region to a language-related region4. Crucially, the arcuate fascicle that connects the IFG with the temporal cortex underwent major changes during primate evolution, and shows a lateralized extension beyond the STG reaching to the MTG only in humans7,8. In summary, the white matter connection from the premotor cortex to the STG as part of the perceptual–motor network is present in macaques, chimpanzees and humans5,7,8, whereas the connection from the IFG to the temporal cortex has extended to reach the MTG as part of the core language network that is present only in humans6,7,8, which suggests that this extension might be of particular relevance for human language (Fig. 1).

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Fig. 1: Evolutionary changes to white-matter fibre tracts within dorsal pathways between the temporal and frontal cortex between macaques, chimpanzees and humans.

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Acknowledgements

The authors were funded by the Max Planck Society under the inter-institutional funds of the president of the Max Planck Society for the project ‘Hominoid Brain Connectomics’ (M.IF.A.XXXX8103). Y.B. was funded by the Fondation Fyssen.

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  1. Department of Neuropsychology, Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig, Germany

    Angela D. Friederici & Yannick Becker

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Correspondence to Angela D. Friederici.

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Friederici, A.D., Becker, Y. The core language network separated from other networks during primate evolution. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 26, 131–132 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-024-00897-9

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