Asymmetry In Chimp Homologues Of Human Language Brain Areas

Bill Hopkins and his various collaborators continue to find interesting evidence of brain asymmetry in chimpanzees. Here they report clear asymmetry in the chimp equivalents of both Broca's and Wernicke's areas. They conclude:

"Our findings support the conclusion that leftward asymmetry of Wernicke's area originated prior to the appearance of modern human language and before our divergence from the last common ancestor. Moreover, this study provides the first evidence of covariance between asymmetry of anterior and posterior cortical regions that in humans are important to language and other higher order cognitive functions."

In my chapter INSIDE THE BRAIN I note earlier findings by Bill Hopkins along this line but add that, at the levels of neurons, and clumps of neurons, there is human specific asymmetric difference.