Nov 16 2009
A Clue to the Evolution of Language – II
Last week I wrote a post about a newly discovered clue into the evolution of language. That clue had to do with the action of a gene. Today I share yet another clue — or a piece to the puzzle, if you prefer. The title to the news release reads,
Words, Gestures Are Translated By Same Brain Regions
Frankly, the title just about tells it all. But here’s more detail:
In a study published in this week’s Early Edition of Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers have shown that the brain regions that have long been recognized as a center in which spoken or written words are decoded are also important in interpreting wordless gestures. The findings suggest that these brain regions may play a much broader role in the interpretation of symbols than researchers have thought and, for this reason, could be the evolutionary starting point from which language originated.
This finding dovetails with a long known curiosity of early language development. Children progress through a number of stages before being able to use fully-functional language. They coo, they babble, and they progress from there. The interesting thing is that even deaf children who later go on to use sign language will first babble. But not with their larynx, tongues and mouth. Instead, they “babble” with their hands.
Cool. When was the last time you “spoke” with your hands? Perhaps you pointed an index finger at someone, palm facing up, then curled that finger back towards you, repeatedly. Come hither. Or maybe you used another finger, pushing it straight up with your fist otherwise balled-up, knuckles facing away from you. You sent a message to another person: this is what I think about you! And if the person saw it, the message was certainly understood.
Although we can “say” so much with gestures, we seem to have specialized in words. Unless, of course, we are deaf. They we can readily specialize in gestures.
