担当：山内
日時：６月２３日（金）１５時〜
場所：コラボ3
内容：６月２９日に行われる理研でのトークのDry Run

Title:
How does niche construction provide a mechanism for Deacon's masking effect?

Abstract:
Recently, Deacon has proposed that  as a result of environmental
changes that mask and unmask selection pressures, a set of genes for
the function X can be replaced by complexes of genes for the function
Z, Y and W collectively imitate the function X. This process is
informally called the REVERSE Baldwin effect as it predicts that a
once strongly genetically predisposed function may become less
genetically bound. Deacon suggests that this process plays an
important role in language evolution (Wiles et al., 2005). For the
process to take place, both masking and unmasking processes are
crucial. Although Deacon and others assume that the masking and
unmasking are triggered by external environmental changes, this type
of assumption sounds somewhat awkward in the case of language
evolution. In this talk, I will present that niche construction
processes typically found in language evolution can provide an
alternative mechanism for triggering the masking effect.