title: Auditory sequence processing reveals evolutionarily conserved regions of frontal cortex in macaques and humans.
abstract: An evolutionary account of human language as a neurobiological system must distinguish between human-unique neurocognitive processes supporting language and evolutionarily conserved, domain-general processes that can be traced back to our primate ancestors. Neuroimaging studies across species may determine whether candidate neural processes are supported by homologous, functionally conserved brain areas or by different neurobiological substrates. Here we use functional magnetic resonance imaging in Rhesus macaques and humans to examine the brain regions involved in processing the ordering relationships between auditory nonsense words in rule-based sequences. We find that key regions in the human ventral frontal and opercular cortex have functional counterparts in the monkey brain. These regions are also known to be associated with initial stages of human syntactic processing. This study raises the possibility that certain ventral frontal neural systems, which play a significant role in language function in modern humans, originally evolved to support domain-general abilities involved in sequence processing.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.|Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Benjamin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.|Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Yukiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kikuchi
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Li
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Hunter
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychological Sciences, Birkbeck University of London, London, WC1E 7HX, UK.
authors.forename: Frederic
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Dick
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, EH8 9AD, UK.
authors.forename: Kenny
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Thiele
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Timothy D
authors.initials: TD
authors.lastname: Griffiths
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, CB2 3EB, UK.
authors.forename: William D
authors.initials: WD
authors.lastname: Marslen-Wilson
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroscience, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.|Centre for Behaviour and Evolution, Henry Wellcome Building, Newcastle University, Framlington Place, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE2 4HH, UK.
authors.forename: Christopher I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Petkov
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001307:Auditory Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D005075:Biological Evolution; D053483:Eye Movement Measurements; D005260:Female; D005625:Frontal Lobe / Q000502:physiology*; D059907:Functional Neuroimaging; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008253:Macaca mulatta; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D014741:Video Recording; D055815:Young Adult