"Although speech and language ability is relatively new in our evolutionary history—our ape cousins can’t speak—it may be built on a foundation that nature has used for millions of years: the basic architecture of sensorimotor control. This insight is reshaping our understanding of how language works in the brain and why certain types of brain damage produce specific patterns of speech difficulties.

Evolution rarely invents entirely new solutions. Instead, it tinkers with existing systems, repurposing and refining them for new functions. Before our ancestors developed language, they already possessed sophisticated systems for controlling movement—reaching for objects, grasping tools, navigating space. These systems shared a common architecture: a motor planning component in the frontal lobes, a sensory target component in the temporal and parietal lobes, and a translation system connecting the two.

The revolutionary idea is that speech production may have evolved by duplicating and adapting this basic sensorimotor template, stacking multiple layers on top of each other. At the lowest level, this architecture controls the fine details of articulation—the precise movements of your tongue, lips, and jaw. At higher levels, it manages phonological patterns (the sound structure of words) and, at the highest level, even grammatical structure. Each level maintains the same basic organization: motor plans, sensory targets, and a system for translating between them."

Continue reading: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/wired-for-words/202510/the-hidden-orchestra-how-ancient-systems-underlie-speech