Although they have no known language, baboons can accurately
discriminate four-letter English words from non-words, according
to a study published today (April 12) in Science. Scientists
have typically considered this—the visual analysis of letters
and their positions in a word—the first step in the reading
process and fundamentally dependent on language. For example,
little children learn to read by sounding out words they already
know. But the new finding suggests that ability to recognize
words is not based on language skills but on an ancient ability,
shared with other primates, to process visual objects.
“Ultimately, reading depends on language," wrote Michael Platt,
director of the Duke Institute for Brain Sciences at Duke
University in Durham, North Carolina, in an accompanying essay
in Science. "But at what stage in the process of translating
written symbols into meaning is language necessary?” The
biological basis of reading “may be rooted much deeper in human
history than previously supposed,” he no