{"id":301,"date":"2010-07-19T10:10:38","date_gmt":"2010-07-19T14:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.bu.edu\/ombs\/?p=301"},"modified":"2010-07-19T10:10:38","modified_gmt":"2010-07-19T14:10:38","slug":"leftlanguage-in-monkey-brains-too","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/2010\/07\/19\/leftlanguage-in-monkey-brains-too\/","title":{"rendered":"Left=Language in monkey brains, too"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bookmark<\/a><\/p>\n

I would hate to marginalize the Creationists that may frequent this blog, but, it is becoming difficult to ignore all of the<\/p>\n

\"Ready
Ready for a chat, perhaps?<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

evidence for Evolution piling up higher and higher.\u00a0 This conglomerate of information is contributed to by almost all fields of study- from Archeology to Biology, and in a recent surge in the rapidly growing field, Neuroscience.\u00a0 Unfortunately for us, submitting to the idea of Evolution forces us to think of ourselves and our fellow humans as a little less awesome or unique- we have always reveled in our species immense capacity for complex language processing, as well as other things of course.\u00a0 But it didn\u2019t just pop up out of nowhere a couple million years in.<\/p>\n

To expand upon the research being done by neuroscience in exploring the evolution of the brain, this article focuses on Wernicke\u2019s area (known for its dedication to processing auditory language information) in chimpanzees.\u00a0 This study used design-based stereologic methods to estimate regional volumes, total neuron number and neuron density.\u00a0 When compared to what we know about the human brain, the results are intriguing.<\/p>\n

What did they find?\u00a0 A leftward asymmetry of this language area in the monkey brains.\u00a0 What does this mean to us?\u00a0 It suggests that the left lateralization of the language area in the brain (left = language, left = language, first thing to memorize in Psych 101) originated before our cutting-edge human species, prior to the appearance of our modern human language.<\/p>\n

This investigation may seem generally boring- these Chimpanzees aren\u2019t Darwin\u2019s finches or anything- but it certainly is significant in showing Neurosciences\u2019 huge potential for contribution to the case of Evolution.\u00a0 They showed that a language specialization that is key to our unique language capabilities actually evolved prior to the emergence of modern humans, serving as a pre-adaptation to modern human language and speech.\u00a0 Studies like these are closing the gap between ancestral species, and unfortunately, making us all feel a little less special about our leap to civilized society.\u00a0 Way to go Evolution.<\/p>\n

Original Article:\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 http:\/\/rspb.royalsocietypublishing.org\/content\/277\/1691\/2165.full?sid=912995c2-144b-45bb-b92c-d7c0196d1fef#ref-5<\/a><\/p>\n

Similar articles investigating monkey brains and language adaptions:\u00a0 http:\/\/current.com\/1ri8u4c<\/a><\/p>\n

Ps.- If anyone studying at BU is really really into Evolution, I highly recommend the Ecuador Study Abroad Program\u2026 A trip to the Galapagos Islands (on a private yacht, no less) and to the Charles Darwin Research Station is a chance of a lifetime.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I would hate to marginalize the Creationists that may frequent this blog, but, it is becoming difficult to ignore all of the evidence for Evolution piling up higher and higher.\u00a0 This conglomerate of information is contributed to by almost all fields of study- from Archeology to Biology, and in a recent surge in the rapidly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3681,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[784],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3681"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ombs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}