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Could a friendly gesture of lip slamming give birth to something as complex as human language? MRI of monkey brains revealed that this simple facial expression could be the precursor of speech. ( Sammy (Ka Chi) Sam | Flickr )
Researchers exploring the brain of apes may have found a new clue that could help them better understand where language comes from human
in the brain of apes that could very well be the evolutionary source of social communication, including something as sophisticated as human language.
Neural Circuits in the Monkey Brain Offer a Clue
In a new article published in the journal Neuron a team of researchers from the Rockefeller University argues that some neural circuits might have given birth to the verbal ability of the man.
These circuits include areas of the brain associated with face recognition, facial expressions, and emotion processing.
Principal author Winrich Freiwald, a professor at the Rockefeller Neural Systems Laboratory, has already identified regions in the brains of monkeys responsible for facial recognition. These neural circuits are very similar to those of the human brain
However, no study has ever been conducted on how these circuits turn on during social communication.
IRM Scans Of Monkey Brains
In a first In his study, Freiwald and his team undertook to take MRI images of the brain of monkeys rhesus macaques while making facial expressions during a social communication active.
The subject monkeys saw video clips of other monkeys. In some of the clips, the monkeys looked elsewhere, simulating situations where subject monkeys simply observed social communication but did not participate in it.
In other clips, the monkeys seemed to look directly at the similar subject monkeys.
The researchers found that when the monkeys in the videos were clapping their lips, the subject monkeys did the same. However, subject monkeys did so only when the monkeys in the video imitated eye-to-eye contact with them.
Brain Scintigraphy Results
Brain scans demonstrated that active social communication illuminated a region in the monkey's brain associated with face recognition, something that Freiwald and his team have already planned on the basis of 39, previous studies.
This stimulates the brain regions involved in creating facial expressions as the subject monkeys responded to the snapping gesture of the lips.
they discovered that activation did not occur linearly and linearly.
They also learned that ocular social communications illuminate a third neural circuit involved in emotion, suggesting that specific areas of the brain perform functions related to social communication.
Lipstick-Smacking Gestures as a Forerunner of the Word
On the other hand, creating facial expressions to respond to the monkeys in the video generated a different model of activation of the brain .
When the subject monkeys made snapping gestures of the lips, the Broca area in the frontal lobe was lit. According to the results, researchers believe that facial expressions could be the precursor of human language
"Understanding this in monkeys will help us understand communication in humans., Where things are so much more complicated" said Freiwald.
Photo: Sammy (Ka Chi) Sam | Flickr
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