Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Monkeys, Hands, and speech


Have a look at this BBC science article: here:
They analysed the way two types of apes that are closely related to humans use hand and limb gestures to communicate. The scientists found that apes used gestures more flexibly than the way they used facial and vocal expressions. They say the findings support the theory that human language developed through the use of hand gestures.

The most appealing argument for me is that for most people the right hand is the dominant hand, which is controlled by the left-side brain. And speech and language is located only in the left-side brain. This is more than a coincidence.

I am talking about this connection, because people who stutter have subtle dual tasks defficiencies with hand or finger movements: see previous post. Maybe this is all related?

6 comments:

Jerome said...

Hi Tom,

And how do left-handers fit in there?

Jerome

Jerome said...

eh, stuttering left-handers of course :)

Tom Weidig said...

I will bar you from making any more posts as you are contradicting the blog owner's ideas with valid questions!!

So left-handers would use as their main hand, the left hand, which is controlled by the right brain.

So do left-handers have their speech and language regions in the right brain, too?

Here is a excerpt from an article:

In most (97%) right-handed people language is controlled by the left hemisphere. Left-handers have a more even distribution of language in both hemispheres. In 19% this is concentrated in the left hemisphere, and in 68% it is concentrated in the right hemisphere, the remainder have language processing in both hemispheres.

(from http://www.singsurf.org/brain/rightbrain.php)

Closet Stutterer said...

At the risk of asking a silly question, I've read and heard that stuttering is thought to be caused by increased activity in the right side of the brain, so are left-handed people more likely to stutter?

My mom swears there's a connection. I'm the only stutterer in the family and I'm the only leftie.

Sophie

Jerome said...

I'm a leftie too for what it's worth ...

Maybe my brain got messes up when they tried to force me to write with my right hand ;) But I think I stuttered even before I went to school ...

Anonymous said...

I once heard that forcing a left-handed child to use their right hand will induce stuttering. It is strange because my husband stuttered terribly when he was a child. He is right-handed, but he holds his pen like a left-hander and his handwriting looks like a left-hander's. I'm not saying his parents did anything to him, but it seems to be connected somehow...