The defining role of language for communicating and forming social
bonds has captured the imagination of scientists and scholars throughout
the ages, and scientific inquiry into the neural correlates of language is
now centuries old. Theories of linguistic structure and function occupy
center stage in fields as diverse as neuroscience, embryology,
anthropology and evolution. This should come as no surprise as the neural
basis of linguistic function holds promise for understanding how the mind
works and what makes us uniquely human.