Posted on 12/09/2016 11:54:35 AM PST by BenLurkin
If you could change the way a monkey or an ape's brain is wired, that animal would be capable of producing perfectly intelligible speech.
That's the conclusion of a study that closely tracked the movements of a monkey's mouth and throat with X-rays, to understand the full potential of its vocal tract.
Researchers then used that information to create a computer model of what it would sound like if the monkey were able to say phrases such as "happy holidays."
The finding calls into question long-held assumptions about how humans developed their unique ability to use spoken language.
"What you'll find in the textbooks is that monkeys can't talk because they don't have the appropriate vocal tract to do so," says Tecumseh Fitch, a cognitive biologist at the University of Vienna. "That, I think, is a myth. My colleagues and I all get very tired of seeing this. But you see it in all the textbooks. Lots of popular books, and also scholarly books about the evolution of language, assume that in order to evolve speech we had to have massive changes in our vocal tract."
In the past, scientists looked at dead animals to judge what their vocal tracts could do. But Fitch says that made people vastly underestimate the flexibility of nonhuman mammals.
He and his colleagues monitored a long-tailed macaque named Emiliano as he made a wide range of different gestures and sounds, including lip-smacks, yawns, chewing, coos, and grunts. Their special equipment took a rapid series of X-rays that allowed them to capture the full range of movement in the monkey's vocal tract. Then they used computer models to explore its potential for generating speech.
Friday, in the journal Science Advances, his team reports that monkeys would be physically capable of producing five distinguishable vowels — the most common number of vowels found in the world's languages.
And human listeners could clearly understand phrases they created with their synthesized monkey speech, including a marriage proposal.
The bottom line, says Fitch, is that a monkey's speech limitations stem from the way its brain is organized.
"As soon as you had a brain that was ready to control the vocal tract," Fitch says, "the vocal tract of a monkey or nonhuman primate would be perfectly fine for producing lots and lots of words."
The real issue is that monkeys' brains do not have direct connections down to the neurons that control the larynx and the tongue, he says. What's more, monkeys don't have critical connections within the brain itself, between the auditory cortex and motor cortex, which makes them incapable of imitating what they hear in the way that humans do.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a science fiction movie from 2011, actually has the right idea, notes Fitch. In that film, after a lab chimp named Caesar undergoes brain changes, he eventually is able to speak words such as "No."
"The new Planet of the Apes is a pretty accurate representation of what we think is going on," says Fitch.
Would help if they all weren’t pressed into writing the works of William Shakespeare. Notice you don’t see typewriters any more. Just when are they going to reach that infinite number?
That's why all we get in the theaters these days is Super Hero movies.
Cant wait to hear thier music. Actually, nevermind.
God designed human spirits different from ape spirits.
Does that help you believe in creation?
I'll never forget, from many many years ago, a talking dog that said "Hamburger", on the Tonight Show, I suppose.
Of course, it was more like "Mah mah mah", but I bought it. It was one of those horribly pampered little bulldog type things.
Anyone who’s ever been close with a pampered, bright dog raised and trained from a puppy knows that they want to talk. Usually can’t quite manage it but they succeed in communicating via other means. Quite a vocabulary as far as understanding words they hear, too. They’ll eventually figure it out when you start to spell “O U T” or “R I D E” or anything else that excites them.
Who remembers Stanley Myron Handleman? A comedian with an ultra-nerdy persona and a Brooklyn accent and a golf cap. He did a bit where he said he once tried out the Monkey-Typrewriter-Shakespeare thing. He put them in the room with the typewriters, left them alone for some time, then checked to see how they were doing, “ ... but they were’went typing !! They were just messing around in there !!!”
My dogs understand many words and also pick up new spellings. We constantly have to change our speech to remain discrete. Our dogs are obsessed with words that pertain to food, walks and play. I wish people listened as good.
Some breeds are just so attuned to their people, it’s amazing. Every move, every word, every inflection, they’re on it, excited, happy and ready to go. Anytime, anywhere, anything. So long as it’s with you. I love them dearly.
.
>> “Have you ever actually been around a parrot?” <<
LOL! Yes, two neighbors raise them (one of those neighbors recently died).
I prefer chickens, they’re quieter. Parrots seem to love to whistle for no reason at all.
Parrots don’t actually utter human speech. They mimic certain sounds that they find intriguing, after they master how to make them, much the same as crows, mynas, etc. it tends to be sounds that they hear frequently.
.
.
Bigfoot speaks!
I was being sarcastic - forgot to add, “/s” at the end.
I’m a wholly committed believer with almost 50 years in ministry.......
You even almost admitted you've heard a parrot make the same sounds a human can, with a vastly different vocal tract.
Will you ever be able to make the intellectual leap that a chimp's far closer to human vocal tract could conceivably be capable of mimicking human sounds if only a chimp had the mental ability to use it?
.
Its not speech. Its quirky sounds, which birds were designed to make.
I didn’t say it was speech, I said it was ‘the same sounds a human can [make]’
Yeah that’s what I meant alright
Which simply does not even come close to chimps being able to communicate like humans, which requires not simply hardware but "software."
The situation is akin to having a high-end computer without a operating system by which to make much use of it.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.