Scientific article
OA Policy
English

Broca's cerebral asymmetry reflects gestural communication's lateralisation in monkeys (Papio anubis)

Published ineLife, vol. 11
Publication date2022-02-02
First online date2022-02-02
Abstract

Manual gestures and speech recruit a common neural network, involving Broca’s area in the left hemisphere. Such speech-gesture integration gave rise to theories on the critical role of manual gesturing in the origin of language. Within this evolutionary framework, research on gestural communication in our closer primate relatives has received renewed attention for investigating its potential language-like features. Here, using in vivo anatomical MRI in 50 baboons, we found that communicative gesturing is related to Broca homologue’s marker in monkeys, namely the ventral portion of the Inferior Arcuate sulcus ( IA sulcus ). In fact, both direction and degree of gestural communication’s handedness – but not handedness for object manipulation are associated and correlated with contralateral depth asymmetry at this exact IA sulcus portion. In other words, baboons that prefer to communicate with their right hand have a deeper left-than-right IA sulcus , than those preferring to communicate with their left hand and vice versa. Interestingly, in contrast to handedness for object manipulation, gestural communication’s lateralisation is not associated to the Central sulcus depth asymmetry, suggesting a double dissociation of handedness’ types between manipulative action and gestural communication. It is thus not excluded that this specific gestural lateralisation signature within the baboons’ frontal cortex might reflect a phylogenetical continuity with language-related Broca lateralisation in humans.

Keywords
  • Gestures
  • Hemispheric specialisation
  • Language evolution
  • Neuroscience
  • Nonhuman primates
  • Papio anubis
Funding
  • French National Research Agency (ANR) - ILCB: Institute of Language Communication and the Brain [ANR-16-CONV-0002]
  • French National Research Agency (ANR) - Marseille NeuroSchool, une formation d'excellence [ANR-17-EURE-0029]
  • European Research Council - [716931 - GESTIMAGE - ERC-2016-STG]
  • Agence Nationale de la Recherche - [ANR-12-PDOC-0014-01]
  • Initiative d’Excellence d’Aix-Marseille Université - [A*Midex AMX-19-IET-004]
Citation (ISO format)
BECKER, Yannick et al. Broca’s cerebral asymmetry reflects gestural communication’s lateralisation in monkeys (Papio anubis). In: eLife, 2022, vol. 11. doi: 10.7554/elife.70521
Main files (1)
Article (Published version)
accessLevelPublic
Identifiers
ISSN of the journal2050-084X
161views
60downloads

Technical informations

Creation02/28/2022 10:27:00 AM
First validation02/28/2022 10:27:00 AM
Update time03/16/2023 6:40:27 AM
Status update03/16/2023 6:40:26 AM
Last indexation11/01/2024 1:50:19 AM
All rights reserved by Archive ouverte UNIGE and the University of GenevaunigeBlack