Are we humans simply remodelled apes? Chimps with a tweak? Is the difference between our genomes so minuscule it justifies the argument that our cognition and behaviour must also differ from chimps by barely a whisker? If “chimps are us” should we grant them human rights? Or is this one of the biggest fallacies in the study of evolution? NOT A CHIMP argues that these similarities have been grossly over-exaggerated - we should keep chimps at arm’s length. Are humans cognitively unique after all?
Saturday, 1 August 2009
Is Broca's Area Asymmetry Unique To Humans?
Are humans truly unique in their cognition? Are there truly unique structures in the brain that have evolved since the split from the common ancestor of chimps and humans? As I argue in detail in the chapter INSIDE THE BRAIN: THE DEVIL IS IN THE DETAIL - it is sometimes very hard to be sure one way or another. This article summarises the perplexing question of whether the left-favouring asymmetry of Broca's Area arose in both chimp and human ancestors or only in the line leading to us. An earlier report from Bill Hopkins at Yerkes had suggested apes were also asymmetrical for their equivalent of Broca's area, though not as much so as humans. Now a recent paper by Chet Sherwood, which includes Hopkins as an co-author, argues the opposite. They find that some chimps do have a notable asymmetry in Brodmann's areas 44 + 45 - which they define as Broca's Area, but it is only a maximum of 10% and sometimes favours the right, sometimes the left. Only humans consistently show a left-favouring asymmetry which dwarfs that in chimps by a factor of 6. The authors say their results "argue anew for human uniqueness".
"Me Cheeta" Makes Booker Prize List
Nice piece in The Guardian as Zoe Williams meets up with "Me Cheeta" novelist James Lever in a Kensal Rise coffee-shop. Although this "ghost-written" autobiography of Johnnie Weismuller's famous sidekick from Tarzan days has gone through several deceits since first revealed as forthcoming by publishers Fourth Estate, it appears to be an excruciatingly wicked filleting of the Hollywood culture.
Sunday, 26 July 2009
Appearance On BBC1 "The Big Qestions".
This episode of The Big Questions included a debate on "Should Apes Have Human Rights?". Colin Blakemore and I were in the con camp while primatologist Ian Redmond, philosopher Paula Casals and Paula Stibbe were the pros. The link to the BBC's iPlayer is above and the 60-minute programme (we are in the middle third) will be available for the next seven days.