Science is Cool: Comparing Chimp & Human Brains

Photo from source, Not Exactly Rocket Science

This post is for my good friend and blog contributor, Denny, who goes by the name Stupid Monkey Planet. He's a sucker for science, and hey, with a chimpanzee tie-in how could I not post it?

Chimpanzees are a particular problem for creationists and/or anti-evolutionists. Their DNA is 94-99% the same as humans, after all. Just about anyone can see the similarities, and now this story says their brains tend to work like ours too. It's a pretty strong argument for "common ancestor" theory, wouldn't you say? Well I would, so there. . . Heh.

Oh, and Denny? We're still waiting for you to descend from the canopy. . .

[Excerpt]

Communicating chimps and talking humans show activity in same part of the brain

Chimpanzees may not be able to recite Hamlet or giving rousing speeches but there is no doubt that they are excellent communicators. They exchange a wide variety of sophisticated calls and gestures that carry meaning and can be tailored to different audiences.

The sophistication of chimp communication doesn't stop there. Jared Taglialatela from the Yerkes National Primate Research Center has found that chimp signals and human speech are both strongly influenced by the same area in the left half of the brain - a region called the inferior frontal gyrus (IFG). . .

Read more at: Not Exactly Rocket Science