Evolutionary Roots Of Language: Humans, Monkeys Recognize Sound Sequences

The evolutionary roots of language show that both humans and monkeys recognize when sequences of sounds occur in or out of order based on similar cognitive brain functions, according to a recent study.

When scanning the brains of both humans and mice, researchers found that a corresponding region of the organ--the ventral frontal and opercular cortex--responded to the order that both species had learned to expect. 

"Young children learn the rules of language as they develop, even before they are able to produce language," said Professor Chris Petkov of Newcastle University, UK, in a news release. "So, we used a 'made up' language first developed to study infants, which our lab has shown the monkeys can also learn. We then determined how the human and monkey brain evaluates the sequences of sounds from this made up language."

During the study, researchers first had humans and monkeys listen to example sequences from the made up language, allowing them to interpret the sequence of sounds, which were correctly sequenced. They then scanned the brain activity of both species as they listened to new sequences that either had a correct order or could not have been generated by the made up language.

The findings suggest that the function of the front region--which is one of the areas involved in understanding human language--is shared in both humans and primates. Furthermore, this brain region seems to monitor the orderliness, or organisation, of what is heard--an essential cognitive function that allows for more complex learning abilities in humans. 

Researchers hope the study results will help them better understand how humans learn or lose language in aphasia following a stroke or certain neurodegenerative illnesses, such as dementia. 

These results provide first evidence that some of the functions of this brain area, which include understanding language in humans, are shared by other animals.

The study is published in Nature Communications.

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