🚨 Language connection FOUND in chimpanzees? 🧠🗣️ For years, scientists thought the key to human language was a fibre connection, missing in chimp brains. New high-res brain scans just changed the game. 👀🐒 📖 Read the full story: https://t.co/2uIYGgRdsX 1/n 🧵👇

If you want to learn more, I'm presenting this study tomorrow Fri 16th of May ~10:30am at the Neuro-primatology symposium (@CdP_Ballesta) #neurofrance2025

10/n 📖 Read the press release: https://t.co/QTN9VvUjhE With amazing co-authors and funders (here online): @AlfredAnwander @FriedericiLab @TaiChimpProject @AWI_de @maxplanckpress @MPI_CBS @NatureComms @NaturePortfolio @FFyssen

9/n Huge kudos to the EBC Consortium behind this work—sourcing naturally or unavoidably deceased primates from the field all across Africa, from sanctuaries and from zoos all across Europe. The future of language research lies in both the lab and the wild. 🧪🌿

8/n Bonus: Chimp communication already shows structure, combinations, and even some syntax-like patterns. See super recent example: https://t.co/NUp5Q3bKpL The long AF may support this, making it a bridge between gesture, vocalisation, and early language.

7/n Bottom line? The neural scaffolding for language likely existed in the last common ancestor of humans and chimps, ~7 million years ago. #Neuroscience #LanguageEvolution #Chimpanzees

6/n Lateralisation matters too. Most chimps (esp. zoo-housed) showed left-hemisphere dominance for AF-MTG, just like us. Wild chimps had more variation—hinting at environmental influence on brain plasticity. 🌍🧠

5/n Key finding: 🔹 In humans, AF-MTG is stronger than AF-STG 🔹 In chimps, it’s the opposite—AF-STG dominates → Suggests evolutionary strengthening of a pre-existing pathway, not a brand-new invention.

4/n The AF-MTG connection in chimps is weaker than in humans but present in all tested brains. And that changes everything. Language wiring didn’t appear out of nowhere—it evolved gradually. 🧬

3/n But in our new study, using ultra-high-res diffusion MRI (500μm), we found AF-MTG connections consistent in both wild and captive chimpanzees.

2/n The arcuate fascicle (AF) is a key brain tract linking language areas in humans, especially Broca’s area with the middle temporal gyrus (MTG), vital for syntax and semantics. Until now, AF-MTG connection was thought to be human-only. 🤯

It turns out that AF-STG is indeed linked to communication (vocal AND gestural)!!! Great that parts of this project are finally seeing the light of day. Thanks to Adrien Meguerditchian (@ERC_Research), @NeuroSchool_mrs, @FFyssen for the support!

Indeed for some reason I got hooked by the arcuate fascicle (or fasciculus). And Erin across the ocean knew about tractography in chimpanzees! At the same time, Bill Hopkins had behavioural data on the same chimpanzees! And Suhas Vijayakumar was an incredible help!

Hey Arcuate freaks and geeks! I first contacted Erin Hecht in 2019. At the time, I was working on my PhD in France on communication correlates of homologous language regions in primates. But what about their interconnections? The article:

Are humans the only species that communicates when a collaborator is missing information? @TownrowLuke and I show that our closest relatives, bonobos, can track when a partner is knowledgeable or ignorant, and tailor communication accordingly @PNASNews https://t.co/OOJerxAOzi

2 scholarships for international applicants only! With @MindaBrain we jointly offer 2 four-year doctoral scholarships. These doctoral positions will be funded by the DAAD. More Infos here: https://t.co/Tc2hG70Tll…

Fantastic postdoc opportunity: the Mensch und Tier Stiftung is looking for two candidates for two-year postdoc fellowships of great ape behavior, conservation, or habitat protection! 🥁🎺🤓

Call for projects - Postdoctoral Study Grants 2025

Hey @gwdg, your shortened link is scaring people and not being recognised by the journal metrics. :o So, here is the full link: https://t.co/1YxwN5SoUW 9/n

Thanks a lot to @nsneuro_jr, @MPI_CBS, @FriedericiLab, @FFyssen! 8/n