Language Center Similarities in the Brains of Humans and Chimps
NATIONAL INSTITUTES OF HEALTH FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday,
January 23, 1998 Contact: Jo Bagley (301) 402-0252 (TTY) An area
of the brain that controls language (the planum temporale), and
has long been designated as unique to humans, is revealed to
have remarkable similarities to that of the same area in
chimpanzees. A new study in the January 9, 1998, issue of
Science reports the results of careful measurement techniques
that compared this area in both species with significant and
promising results. "Not only are the areas similar in structure
and appearance, but the area in the left brain of chimpanzees is
consistently larger and more developed than the right. Just as
in humans," said investigator Allen R. Braun, M.D., of the
National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
(NIDCD) of the National Institutes of Health. The marked
differences in the two sides of the chimp brain were first
observed during a magnetic resonance ima