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Language evolution and the primate brain| old_uid | 15474 |
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| title | Language evolution and the primate brain |
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| start_date | 2015/04/08 |
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| schedule | 14h |
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| online | no |
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| location_info | salle Dussane |
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| summary | Many animals, nonhuman primates included, are not thought to be able to combine their vocalizations into structured sequences. Nonetheless, it remains possible that these animals could learn to recognize certain types of rule-based sequences, such as those generated by Artificial Grammars (AGs), and that sequence learning abilities could have been evolutionary precursors to human language. Thus, an interesting empirical question is which animal species can learn various levels of AG structural complexity. Understanding this could clarify the evolutionary roots of human language and facilitate the development of animal models to study language precursors at the neuronal level. In this talk I will first describe the results from behavioral AG learning work that we have conducted with macaque and marmoset monkeys, two species of nonhuman primates representing different primate evolutionary lineages. Here, I will propose a quantitative approach to relate our findings to those that have been obtained in other animal species (including songbirds) and with different AGs. Then I will describe fMRI results on macaque brain regions that are involved in AG learning and how these results compare to fMRI findings in humans and chimpanzees (the latter conducted with collaborators at Yerkes Primate Research Center). I conclude by overviewing macaque neurophysiology work which provides insights on neuronal responses and cortical oscillations associated with AG learning. |
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| responsibles | <not specified> |
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