Robert Sapolsky on Language and schizophrenia

• importance of FOXP2
  
• Take away FOXP2 from mice and they talk less complexly.
• Give mice our human FOXP2 and they talk more.
• Humans missing FOXP2 can’t do they no talkin be wrongly.
• Babel → pidgin → creole
• all creoles have the same grammar
• …smells like…one inherent human language???
  
• ecological factors: rainforest & biodiverse ecosystems tend to produce polytheistic cultures (more linguistic diversity, “more diversity” in many areas)
• 90% of Earth’s languages will be extinct in not so long.
• hunter-gatherers have a higher frequency of click languages
• “Language is how we outsmart plants” —Steven Pinker
• language is sequential; toolmaking is sequential
• cooperation — game theory — kin selection — and, lying.
• Dogs put the lid on their fear pheromones by tucking their tails.
• A lot of the brain controls facial expressions. (important if you want to lie)
• Game theory with communication, with semanticity, with syntax, with grammar — all traits of our language — improve outcomes in the game.

Minute 23 — Schizophrenia

• Sequential thinking is impaired. (Can’t tell a story in an order that will make sense to others.) (Actually that sounds like me.)
• Loose associations. (Can’t keep straight within one sentence whether “boxer” refers to dog or occupation. Gold caddy vs Cadillac)
• (So I guess homophones differ among languages and thus schizophrenics of different languages tangent predictably based on their language?)
• Difficulties with abstraction. (Fact vs parable vs rumour) Always interpret as concrete reality.
• “Apple, banana, orange. What do these words have in common?” “They’re all multisyllabic words.” “OK, that’s true. Anything else?” “Yes. They all have letters with closed loops.” Symbolic function of language not working for them.
• “What’s on your mind?” “My hair.” “Can I take your picture?” “I don’t have a picture to give.” “Can you write a sentence for me?” “A sentence for me.”
• Belief that they participated in historical events.
• “What do apples, oranges, and bananas have in common?” “They’re all wired for sound.”
• Hallucinations. The defining feature.
• Most hallucinations are auditory but we don’t know why.
• People experience very structured hallucinations, not random ones. But neurologically it looks random. epsilon;
• In fact papers have been published about the most common hallucinations. Commonest voices, in order: Jesus, Satan, the political leader.
• The story of a schizophrenic Maasai.
• After a really abhorrent violation of social convention, they locked her away and she died. Sound familiar? Oh well, I guess she knew what was coming to her and ∴ tacitly rationally agreed to her punishment, right?
• Nuopharmacology evolving from trying to cure hallucinations to trying to cure disordered thought.
• Elderly schizophrenics lose the positive symptoms (hallucinations, delusions, loose associations) and the negative symptoms (flat affect and withdrawal) dominate.
• Schizophrenia sets on in late adolescence/early adulthood—make it to  30 without it, you’re probably safe.
• Anchored in the frontal cortex.

(por StanfordUniversity)

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