Origen y evolución del lenguaje / Language origin and evolution

El origen y la evolución del lenguaje sigue siendo un tema no resuelto, basado en evidencias indirectas debido aque la capacidad lingüística no deja rastros claros en el registro fósil. A nuestro entender, el lenguaje evolucionó siguiendodistintos grados sucesivos. El punto de partida sería hace unos 2 millones de años, cuando los homínidos reunieron unascaracterísticas biológicas y culturales que permitieron el salto a un nivel comunicativo cualitativamente superior. Aproximadamente2,5 millones de años atrás aparecen en el registro fósil los primeros representantes del género Homo, los Homohabilis. El estudio de moldes endocraniales de H. habilis sugiere la presencia en su cerebro de las dos áreas que en el hombremoderno están asociadas a la capacidad lingüística, las áreas de Broca y Wernicke. También se ha detectado en esta especieel inicio del descenso de la laringe mediante el estudio del basicráneo, lo que permite diferenciarlo se sus predecesores en elregistro fósil y de los primates actuales y que lo acerca a la anatomía propia del H. sapiens. Culturalmente, H. habilis tambiénsupone un nivel superior de complejidad, constatado a través del estudio de sus industrias líticas y de su supuesta sociabilidad.Esta capacidad lingüística se hace mucho más patente en su sucesor en el registro fósil, H. erectus, que tiene unaencefalización y un esqueleto muy similares al hombre actual. No obstante, la capacitación para un lenguaje de doblearticulación no aparecería hasta los primeros humanos anatómicamente modernos, es decir, hace unos 150.000 años, y seríaexclusiva del H. sapiens

Language origin and evolution is still a controversial issue, on the bases of indirect evidences because linguisticcapacities do not fossilise. To our understanding, language evolution took place following several consecutive steps. The startingpoint was probably two million years ago, when hominids assembled different biologic and cultural characteristics that allowthem to get a communication level that was qualitatively superior to the previous one. Approximately 2.5 million years agoappeared on the fossil record the first representatives of the Homo genus, Homo habilis, in which we stated biological changesthroughout the study of endocranial casts and the laryngeal, pharyngeal and oral tracts. Endocranial casts indicate that H.habilis’s brains had the two main areas related to language capacity of modern humans: Broca’s and Wernicke’s areas. Thebeginning of the laryngeal descent is stated in H. habilis by the study of the basicranium, allowing us to differentiate this speciefrom the previous ones and from living apes, and bringing his anatomy near H. sapiens. Culturally, H. habilis also supposes asuperior level of complexity, as stated by the study of his lithic technology and his supposed sociability. This linguistic capacityis more evident in his successor on the fossil record, H. erectus, who had a brain size and skeleton very close to that of modernhumans. However, the appearance of the double articulation language only took place with the rise of the first anatomicallymodern humans, some 150,000 years ago, and is an exclusive trait of H. sapiens

[Hydrocephalus after subarachnoid hemorrhage]. / Hidrocefalia posthemorragia subaracnoidea.

Fifty patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) were evaluated, with attention to past history, age, sex, time from the onset of symptoms to hospital admission, etiology of SAH, diagnostic procedures, therapy and outcome. Of these, 16 who showed ventricular dilatation in the CT during their evolution were analyzed. We emphasize the importance of the neurologic evolution of the patient for the consideration of the need of surgical therapy with external drainage of cerebrospinal fluid or definitive shunt. Ten patients required definitive shunt; in 7 of them, SAH had been caused by arterial aneurysm. All had a grade higher than 3 in Hunt and Hess' scale and only one half received fibrinolytic drugs during their treatment.