[{"command":"openDialog","selector":"#drupal-modal","settings":null,"data":"\u003Cdiv id=\u0022republish_modal_form\u0022\u003E\u003Cform class=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form ecl-form\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 action=\u0022\/en\/article\/modal\/7108\u0022 method=\u0022post\u0022 id=\u0022modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 accept-charset=\u0022UTF-8\u0022\u003E\u003Cp\u003EHorizon articles can be republished for free under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) licence.\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EYou must give appropriate credit. We ask you to do this by:\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 1) Using the original journalist\u0027s byline\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 2) Linking back to our original story\u003Cbr \/\u003E\n 3) Using the following text in the footer: This article was originally published in \u003Ca href=\u0027#\u0027\u003EHorizon, the EU Research and Innovation magazine\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003ESee our full republication guidelines \u003Ca href=\u0027\/horizon-magazine\/republish-our-stories\u0027\u003Ehere\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cp\u003EHTML for this article, including the attribution and page view counter, is below:\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022js-form-item form-item js-form-type-textarea form-item-body-content js-form-item-body-content ecl-form-group ecl-form-group--text-area form-no-label ecl-u-mv-m\u0022\u003E\n \n\u003Cdiv\u003E\n \u003Ctextarea data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 aria-describedby=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 id=\u0022edit-body-content\u0022 name=\u0022body_content\u0022 rows=\u00225\u0022 cols=\u002260\u0022 class=\u0022form-textarea ecl-text-area\u0022\u003E\u003Ch2\u003EHand gestures point towards the origins of language\u003C\/h2\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere 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.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EThere 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. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut 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.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EMany primate species use gestures to communicate with others in their groups. Wild chimpanzees, for example, have been seen to use at least \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.cell.com\/current-biology\/fulltext\/S0960-9822(14)00667-8\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003E66 different hand signals and movements\u003C\/a\u003E to 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 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/science.sciencemag.org\/content\/206\/4421\/891\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003ENim was taught around 125 signs\u003C\/a\u003E\u0026nbsp;in a project at Columbia University, while the gorilla Koko in a Californian reserve \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/www.nationalgeographic.com\/news\/2018\/06\/gorillas-koko-sign-language-culture-animals\/\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003Elearnt around 100 signs\u003C\/a\u003E. \u003Cem\u003E(see gallery below about the communication styles of five different animals.)\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\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 \u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/rcn\/210910\/factsheet\/fr\u0022 target=\u0022_blank\u0022 rel=\u0022noopener noreferrer\u0022\u003EGESTIMAGE \u003C\/a\u003Eproject.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cblockquote class=\u0022tw-text-center tw-text-blue tw-font-bold tw-text-2xl lg:tw-w-1\/2 tw-border-2 tw-border-blue tw-p-12 tw-my-8 lg:tw-m-12 lg:tw--ml-16 tw-float-left\u0022\u003E\n \u003Cspan class=\u0022tw-text-5xl tw-rotate-180\u0022\u003E\u201c\u003C\/span\u003E\n \u003Cp class=\u0022tw-font-serif tw-italic\u0022\u003E\u2018The visual aspect of language is much more important than linguists used to believe.\u2019\u003C\/p\u003E\n \u003Cfooter\u003E\n \u003Ccite class=\u0022tw-not-italic tw-font-normal tw-text-sm tw-text-black\u0022\u003E- Professor Wendy Sandler, University of Haifa, Israel\u003C\/cite\u003E\n \u003C\/footer\u003E\n\u003C\/blockquote\u003E\n\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EBaby brains\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EAs 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr Meguerditchian is studying both adult and baby baboons (\u003Cem\u003EPapio anubis\u003C\/em\u003E) to see which gestures they learn and the parts of their brains that might be involved.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\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\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EIn 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).\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EDr 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018The questions is, if language is mostly in the left hemisphere in humans, what about gesture in non-human primates?\u2019 he said. \u0026nbsp;\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\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ESo 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. \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBy 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EBut 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\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\u0026nbsp; \u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EUnlike 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.\u0026nbsp;\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\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 (\u003Ca href=\u0022https:\/\/cordis.europa.eu\/project\/rcn\/188499\/factsheet\/en\u0022\u003EGRAMBY\u003C\/a\u003E). Part of the work has involved studying the complexity of newly emerging sign languages and sign language in a number of different cultures.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003ESigning\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u2018Different parts of the body convey different linguistic functions,\u2019 she said.\u0026nbsp; \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\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EShe 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EProf. 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ETaking all her studies together, she has concluded that humans are \u2018compositional communicators\u2019.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\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. \u0026nbsp;This compositional complexity is critical in human communication.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003ECan 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003EScientists 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.\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cstrong\u003EHow five different animals communicate\u003C\/strong\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\n \n\n\n\n\u003Csection class=\u0022ecl-gallery\u0022 data-ecl-auto-init=\u0022Gallery\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-visible-items=\u00228\u0022 data-ecl-gallery\u003E\u003Cul class=\u0022ecl-gallery__list\u0022\u003E\u003Cli class=\u0022ecl-gallery__item\u0022\u003E\u003Ca\n href=\u0022\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/fruitbat.jpg\u0022\n data-ecl-gallery-item\n class=\u0022ecl-gallery__item-link\u0022aria-label=\u0022Bats speak to each other with high frequency chirps and screeches, some of which humans can\u2019t hear. In 2016 researchers found that Egyptian fruit bats love to argue and change tones according to which bat they are talking to. Image credit: Jin Kemoole\/Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0\u0022\u003E\u003Cfigure class=\u0022ecl-gallery__image-container\u0022\u003E\u003Cpicture class=\u0022ecl-picture ecl-gallery__picture\u0022\u003E\u003Cimg \n class=\u0022ecl-gallery__image\u0022\n src=\u0022\/sites\/default\/files\/hm\/fruitbat.jpg\u0022\n alt=\u0022Bats speak to each other with high frequency chirps and screeches, some of which humans can\u2019t hear. In 2016 researchers found that Egyptian fruit bats love to argue and change tones according to which bat they are talking to. Image credit: Jin Kemoole\/Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0\u0022 \n \/\u003E\u003C\/picture\u003E\u003Cfigcaption\n class=\u0022ecl-gallery__description\u0022\n data-ecl-gallery-description\n \u003EBats speak to each other with high frequency chirps and screeches, some of which humans can\u2019t hear. In 2016 researchers found that Egyptian fruit bats love to argue and change tones according to which bat they are talking to. Image credit: Jin Kemoole\/Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0\u003C\/figcaption\u003E\u003C\/figure\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/li\u003E\u003C\/ul\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__footer\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__info\u0022\u003E\u003Cstrong class=\u0022ecl-gallery__info-total\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-count\u003E0\u003C\/strong\u003Emedia items\u003Cbutton class=\u0022ecl-button ecl-button--ghost ecl-gallery__view-all\u0022 type=\u0022submit\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-all data-ecl-gallery-collapsed-label=\u0022See\u0026#x20;all\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-expanded-label=\u0022Collapse\u0022\u003ESee all\u003C\/button\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdialog class=\u0022ecl-gallery__overlay\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-overlay\u003E\u003Cheader class=\u0022ecl-gallery__close\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-overlay-header\u003E\u003Cbutton class=\u0022ecl-button ecl-button--ghost ecl-gallery__close-button\u0022 type=\u0022submit\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-close\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022ecl-button__container\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022ecl-button__label\u0022 data-ecl-label=\u0022true\u0022\u003EClose\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Csvg\n class=\u0022ecl-icon ecl-icon--s ecl-button__icon ecl-button__icon--after\u0022\n focusable=\u0022false\u0022\n aria-hidden=\u0022true\u0022\n data-ecl-icon\u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022\/themes\/contrib\/oe_theme\/dist\/ec\/images\/icons\/sprites\/icons.svg#close\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/button\u003E\u003C\/header\u003E\u003Csection class=\u0022ecl-gallery__slider\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__slider-media-container\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-overlay-media\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/section\u003E\u003Cfooter class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail\u0022 data-ecl-gallery-overlay-footer\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-container\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail-actions\u0022\u003E\u003Ca\n href=\u0022\u0022\n class=\u0022ecl-link ecl-link--standalone ecl-link--icon ecl-link--icon-after ecl-gallery__share\u0022\n data-ecl-gallery-overlay-share\n\u003E\u003Cspan class=\u0022ecl-link__label\u0022\u003EShare\u003C\/span\u003E\u003Csvg\n class=\u0022ecl-icon ecl-icon--fluid ecl-link__icon\u0022\n focusable=\u0022false\u0022\n aria-hidden=\u0022true\u0022\n \u003E\u003Cuse xlink:href=\u0022\/themes\/contrib\/oe_theme\/dist\/ec\/images\/icons\/sprites\/icons.svg#share\u0022\u003E\u003C\/use\u003E\u003C\/svg\u003E\u003C\/a\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv\n class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail-description\u0022\n data-ecl-gallery-overlay-description\n \u003EBats speak to each other with high frequency chirps and screeches, some of which humans can\u2019t hear. In 2016 researchers found that Egyptian fruit bats love to argue and change tones according to which bat they are talking to. Image credit: Jin Kemoole\/Flickr, licensed under CC BY 2.0\u003C\/div\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__pager\u0022\u003E\u003Cdiv class=\u0022ecl-gallery__detail-counter\u0022\u003E\u003Cspan data-ecl-gallery-overlay-counter-current\u003E0\u003C\/span\u003E \/ \u003Cspan data-ecl-gallery-overlay-counter-max\u003E0\u003C\/span\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/div\u003E\u003C\/footer\u003E\u003C\/dialog\u003E\u003C\/section\u003E\n\u003C\/p\u003E\u003Cp\u003E\u003Cem\u003EThe research in this article was funded by the European Research Council. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.\u003C\/em\u003E\u003C\/p\u003E\u003C\/textarea\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E\n\n \u003Cdiv id=\u0022edit-body-content--description\u0022 class=\u0022ecl-help-block description\u0022\u003E\n Please copy the above code and embed it onto your website to republish.\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n \u003C\/div\u003E\n\u003Cinput autocomplete=\u0022off\u0022 data-drupal-selector=\u0022form-qge15ttt-8-if1w-pqdvavudnhlt8lt4yx-iugy1r0\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_build_id\u0022 value=\u0022form-_QgE15Ttt-8_IF1W_pqdVAVUdnhLt8LT4yX_IugY1r0\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003Cinput data-drupal-selector=\u0022edit-modal-form-example-modal-form\u0022 type=\u0022hidden\u0022 name=\u0022form_id\u0022 value=\u0022modal_form_example_modal_form\u0022 \/\u003E\n\u003C\/form\u003E\n\u003C\/div\u003E","dialogOptions":{"width":"800","modal":true,"title":"Republish this content"}}]