9/20/2023 0 Comments Chimpanzee hand uses![]() Certain regions on the left side of our brain, such as Broca’s area, are especially important when we speak. In human babies, which learn to gesture at objects before they can speak, the left side of their brain seems to be engaged when they do so. ‘Baboons are also able to point to food they want and use gaze, like children can.’ ‘When baboons invite someone to play, they will use their hands,’ he said. ‘The visual aspect of language is much more important than linguists used to believe.’ - Professor Wendy Sandler, University of Haifa, IsraelĪs both primates and humans can communicate through gestures, it provides a way of comparing how gestures are related to brain asymmetry for language and to unravel whether there are differences in how each species communicate.ĭr Meguerditchian is studying both adult and baby baboons ( Papio anubis) to see which gestures they learn and the parts of their brains that might be involved. ‘If you want to understand the origins of language, you need to understand not only animal cognition and communication but also its brain specialisation in comparison with humans and that is what we do in primate species,’ said Dr Meguerditchian, who is leading the research under the GESTIMAGE project. Given that gestures in primates seems to involve several key properties that underpin spoken language, Dr Meguerditchian wants to see if primates undergo similar brain asymmetry when they gesture to each other. Most language properties involve asymmetric organisation of the human brain between the two hemispheres. ‘The idea is to look at language, not just as speech, but seeing it as a constellation of many cognitive properties,’ said Dr Meguerditchian. (see gallery below about the communication styles of five different animals.) A chimp named Nim was taught around 125 signs in a project at Columbia University, while the gorilla Koko in a Californian reserve learnt around 100 signs. In the past, researchers have also successfully taught apes more than 100 words in sign language. Lifting a foot towards another chimp, for example, means ‘climb on me’, while stroking their mouth can mean ‘give me the object’. Wild chimpanzees, for example, have been seen to use at least 66 different hand signals and movements to communicate with each other. Many primate species use gestures to communicate with others in their groups. And with no other living relatives able to communicate as we do, it has made understanding the origins of language a knotty problem.īut Dr Adrien Meguerditchian, a primatologist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research and Aix-Marseille University, believes that gestures could be a key landmark in the evolution of language – and these are something we do have in common with other primates. ![]() ![]() There were attempts in the 1950s to teach chimpanzees to ‘speak’ some words, but these completely failed. Our ability to use subtle combinations of sounds produced by our vocal cords to create words and sentences, which when combined with grammatical rules, convey complex ideas. There are few one-offs in life on Earth – rarely can a single species boast a trait or ability that no other possesses. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |