{"id":930,"date":"2019-08-20T10:52:36","date_gmt":"2019-08-20T10:52:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=930"},"modified":"2019-08-20T10:52:36","modified_gmt":"2019-08-20T10:52:36","slug":"hand-gestures-point-towards-the-origins-of-language","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/930\/hand-gestures-point-towards-the-origins-of-language\/","title":{"rendered":"Hand gestures point towards the origins of language"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Communication gestures used by humans and our primate relatives are providing clues about how our species\u2019 ability to use spoken language evolved.<\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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There are few one-offs in life on Earth \u2013 rarely can a single species boast a trait or ability that no other possesses. But human language is one such oddity. 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.<\/p>\n

There were attempts in the 1950s to teach chimpanzees to \u2018speak\u2019 some words, but these completely failed. And with no other living relatives able to communicate as we do, it has made understanding the origins of language a knotty problem.<\/p>\n

But 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 \u2013 and these are something we do have in common with other primates.<\/p>\n

Many primate species use gestures to communicate with others in their groups. Wild chimpanzees, for example, have been seen to use at least\u00a066 different hand signals and movements<\/a>\u00a0to communicate with each other. Lifting a foot towards another chimp, for example, means \u2018climb on me\u2019, while stroking their mouth can mean \u2018give me the object\u2019. In the past, researchers have also successfully taught apes more than 100 words in sign language. A chimp named\u00a0Nim was taught around 125 signs<\/a>\u00a0in a project at Columbia University, while the gorilla Koko in a Californian reserve\u00a0learnt around 100 signs<\/a>.\u00a0(see gallery below about the communication styles of five different animals.)<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018The idea is to look at language, not just as speech, but seeing it as a constellation of many cognitive properties,\u2019 said Dr Meguerditchian. Most language properties involve asymmetric organisation of the human brain between the two hemispheres. 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.<\/p>\n

\u2018If 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,\u2019 said Dr Meguerditchian, who is leading the research under the\u00a0GESTIMAGE\u00a0<\/a>project.<\/p>\n

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\u2018The visual aspect of language is much more important than linguists used to believe.\u2019<\/p>\n

– Professor Wendy Sandler, University of Haifa, Israel<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Baby brains<\/strong><\/p>\n

As 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.<\/p>\n

Dr Meguerditchian is studying both adult and baby baboons (Papio anubis<\/em>) to see which gestures they learn and the parts of their brains that might be involved.<\/p>\n

\u2018When baboons invite someone to play, they will use their hands,\u2019 he said. \u2018Baboons are also able to point to food they want and use gaze, like children can.\u2019<\/p>\n

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. Certain regions on the left side of our brain, such as Broca\u2019s area, are especially important when we speak. Named after French physician Paul Broca, who studied patients who had lost ability to speak, Broca\u2019s area is found in the frontal area of the brain of the dominant hemisphere (usually left).<\/p>\n

Dr Meguerditchian is using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to study baboon baby brains to see if they use a similar part of their brain when they learn to gesture.<\/p>\n

\u2018The questions is, if language is mostly in the left hemisphere in humans, what about gesture in non-human primates?\u2019 he said. \u00a0\u2018If it is the same system, which was used by a common ancestor between us, gesture in baboons might also be related to this left hemisphere specialisation of the brain (in baboons).\u2019<\/p>\n

So far, early results from 27 brain scans of baby baboons suggest that his hypothesis is correct, and apes use similar asymmetric brain areas when they gesture as humans do when they gesture and speak.<\/p>\n

By comparing these results in baboons with other primates, including humans, gorillas, chimps and monkeys, Dr Meguerditchian hopes to unravel whether they too share a similar asymmetric system in the brain for communication. This might help discern where on our evolutionary tree gesture communication, and the brain structures needed for it, first arose and perhaps sowed the seeds for our spoken language.<\/p>\n

But he is not alone in thinking that some of the earliest forms of language in our species may well have been gestural rather than vocal.<\/p>\n

\u2018But for some reason, speech won out evolutionarily,\u2019 said Professor Wendy Sandler, a linguist at the University of Haifa, Israel. \u2018We have not discovered any community of hearing people who happen to use sign language as their main mode of communication.\u2019<\/p>\n

Prof. Sandler is exploring the relationship between physical communication and the composition of human language. She believes sign languages can provide some clues to the structure of human language and how language may have emerged in our ancestors.<\/p>\n

Unlike all spoken languages, which are thousands of years old and descended from other ancient languages, sign language can be born whenever a group of deaf people have an opportunity to meet and communicate.<\/p>\n

\u2018The visual aspect of language is much more important than linguists used to believe,\u2019 added Prof. Sandler, who is leading a project called the Grammar of the Body (GRAMBY<\/a>). Part of the work has involved studying the complexity of newly emerging sign languages and sign language in a number of different cultures.<\/p>\n

Signing<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Different parts of the body convey different linguistic functions,\u2019 she said.\u00a0 \u2018The hands convey words, but the intonation, so the rise and fall of voice, is conveyed in sign language by facial expressions and different tilts of the head.\u2019<\/p>\n

She and her colleagues also studied video footage of chimp displays at a Zambian wildlife orphanage to see if they use combinations of facial and gestural signals to convey complex meanings. Humans can knit together smaller elements of meaning according to known rules to form composites, which gives us the ability to communicate an infinite number of messages.<\/p>\n

Prof. Sandler gives an example of this in the words \u2018train station,\u2019 which we know is a station for trains because of the words and rules we know apply in English. We also easily understand that \u2018train station ticket office\u2019 is a kind of office, and so forth. She has also studied the expression of extreme emotion in athletes who have won and lost a competition.<\/p>\n

Taking all her studies together, she has concluded that humans are \u2018compositional communicators\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u2018This means we can express complex messages by reorganising the same units according to their meanings and the rules of our language,\u2019 Prof. Sandler said. \u00a0This compositional complexity is critical in human communication.<\/p>\n

Can chimps stack meaning like this to create a higher meaning? So far the answer is certainly negative in our nearest relatives. However, Prof. Sandler discovered that chimps can separate and recombine some gesture and facial expressions, which \u2018is a stepping stone to the compositionality of human language\u2019.<\/p>\n

Scientists still do not know how or when language arose in our ancestors, a crucial mystery in unravelling our uniqueness. But a better understanding of how humans use gestures and our closest primate relatives communicate may reveal more about how and when we learned to speak.<\/p>\n

The research in this article was funded by the European Research Council. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.<\/em><\/p>\n

Originally published on Horizon<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Communication gestures used by humans and our primate relatives are providing clues about how our species\u2019 ability to use spoken language evolved. There are few one-offs in life on Earth \u2013 rarely can a single species boast a trait or ability that no other possesses. But human language is one such oddity. Our ability to … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":320,"featured_media":931,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[169,37,224],"class_list":["post-930","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","tag-frontier-research","tag-health","tag-language"],"yoast_head":"\nHand gestures point towards the origins of language - Horizon Magazine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/930\/hand-gestures-point-towards-the-origins-of-language\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hand gestures point towards the origins of language\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Communication gestures used by humans and our primate relatives are providing clues about how our species\u2019 ability to use spoken language evolved. 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In 2003,\u00a0an influential study\u00a0showed that children from rich families were exposed to around 30 million more\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brain & Behavior"","block_context":{"text":"Brain & Behavior","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/brain-behavior\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image Credit - Pixabay License","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/childlanguage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/childlanguage.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/childlanguage.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/childlanguage.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/childlanguage.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/childlanguage.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2049,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2049\/listening-to-the-reason-of-voice\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":1},"title":"Listening to the reason of voice","author":"Horizon Magazine","date":"May 26, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Speech and language skills are unique to modern humans. While this ability evolved over millions of years, it is not possible to trace language in the fossil record because it leaves no direct imprint. Instead, re-examining the ways our nearest living relatives communicate is helping to unravel this mysterious capability.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Earth, Energy & Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Earth, Energy & Environment","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/earth-energy-environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/05\/may-11.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/05\/may-11.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/05\/may-11.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/05\/may-11.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/05\/may-11.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":622,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/622\/noise-and-motion-links-to-dyslexia-pave-way-for-early-diagnosis\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":2},"title":"Noise and motion links to dyslexia pave way for early diagnosis","author":"Sandrine Ceurstemont","date":"January 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Most children are able to learn language almost effortlessly. But for those with communication disorders such as dyslexia, mastering their native tongue can be a challenge. Researchers are exploring how links with noise, language and motion could help diagnose problems earlier and pave the way for better treatment. Dyslexia is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brain & Behavior"","block_context":{"text":"Brain & Behavior","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/brain-behavior\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image credit - Jay Inslee, CC BY-ND 2.0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2087,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2087\/lost-for-words-the-devastation-caused-by-aphasia\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":3},"title":"Lost for words \u2013 the devastation caused by aphasia","author":"Horizon Magazine","date":"July 5, 2022","format":false,"excerpt":"Aphasia is a devastating diagnosis that affects your ability to speak or understand language. It\u2019s a little-known condition that effects 300 000 Europeans every year and recently made headlines when actor Bruce Willis announced he was diagnosed with it. Aphasia is a language disorder that is caused by a brain\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brain & Behavior"","block_context":{"text":"Brain & Behavior","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/brain-behavior\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/4june.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/4june.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/4june.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/4june.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2022\/07\/4june.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1574,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1574\/studies-into-bilingual-cognition-could-help-improve-language-learning\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":4},"title":"Studies into bilingual cognition could help improve language learning","author":"Sandrine Ceurstemont","date":"January 12, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Bilingual people can effortlessly switch between languages during everyday interactions. But beyond its usefulness in communication, being bilingual could affect how the brain works and enhance certain abilities. Studies into this could inform techniques for learning languages and other skills.\u00a0 More than half of people in Europe speak more than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brain & Behavior"","block_context":{"text":"Brain & Behavior","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/brain-behavior\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/jessica-lewis-8T-lK9FkzyI-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/jessica-lewis-8T-lK9FkzyI-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/jessica-lewis-8T-lK9FkzyI-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/jessica-lewis-8T-lK9FkzyI-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/jessica-lewis-8T-lK9FkzyI-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2021\/01\/jessica-lewis-8T-lK9FkzyI-unsplash-scaled.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":617,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/617\/the-internet-is-helping-to-revive-minority-languages\/","url_meta":{"origin":930,"position":5},"title":"The internet is helping to revive minority languages","author":"Aisling Irwin","date":"January 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Europe\u2019s minority languages have been squeezed by nation-building, urbanisation and the\u00a0\u2018lingua francas\u2019 of the internet, according to\u00a0Professor Anneli Sarhimaa, specialist in Northern European and Baltic languages and cultures at the University of Mainz, Germany. But one lesson she has learned from researching the fate of the Finnic language Karelian, spoken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Social Sciences"","block_context":{"text":"Social Sciences","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/social-sciences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image credit - CC0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/320"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=930"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/930\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=930"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=930"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=930"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}