ABSTRACT
In this book, we have debated the fascinating issue of the interconnections between language, psychopathology and schizophrenia in a clinical and evolutionary perspective. In the first section of the book, it has been pointed out that the neural bases of human language are circuits linking activity in different parts of the brain that are also implicated in learning and executing complex voluntary motor acts, including talking. Therefore, no structures of the human brain can be considered specific to language. Although human and non-human primate neural circuits and cortical structures appear to be similar, human genes that differ from those found in chimpanzees are good candidates for conferring the linguistic, cognitive, and motor capacities that distinguish humans from other living species. Also, it has been shown that the devices at the basis of the origin and the functioning of language are closely linked to the ability to navigate in space, based on the evidence of the narrative difficulties of individuals with deficits in spatial navigation. In particular, it has been highlighted that: (1) an essential feature of language is the ability to speak appropriately; (2) the ability to speak appropriately governs the production and comprehension of the flow of speech at the level of discourse; and (3) the same spatial processes implicated in discourse production–comprehension are involved in the origin of language. Finally, in the first part of the book, the problem of Self- and world-representation has been debated, showing that a minimal level of primary consciousness is present in all vertebrates, being sustained by the brainstem and hypothalamus. In contrast, narrative consciousness, which mainly correlates to episodic memory and language and is supported by medial and lateral cerebral structures, is uniquely present in the human species.
