Wired for Language

[Francis Hult]

Science

 

Wired for Language

 

We humans can do all sorts of things other animals can't. Take language, for example--an ability researchers have long chalked up to our big and specialized brains. But size isn't everything, according to a new study, which suggests that important changes in the brain's wiring played a key role in language evolution.

 

[...]

 

The scans showed dramatic differences between humans and the other primates. Although the arcuate fasciculus in all three species was hooked up to the frontal cortex--including with Broca's area in humans--only in humans did the arcuate fasciculus extend deeply into language-associated areas of the temporal cortex, such as Wernicke's area. In chimps, the arcuate fasciculus made only very limited connections with temporal cortex regions homologous to Wernicke's area, and there was little evidence of such connections in macaques, the team reports online this week in Nature Neuroscience. 

 

Full story:

http://sciencenow.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/full/2008/324/2

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