Planum temporale asymmetry in newborn monkeys predicts the future development of gestural communication’s handedness

Yannick Becker, Romane Phelipon, Damien Marie, Siham Bouziane, Rebecca Marchetti, Julien Sein, Lionel Velly, Luc Renaud, Alexia Cermolacce, Jean-Luc Anton, Bruno Nazarian, Olivier Coulon and Adrien Meguerditchian ()
Additional contact information
Yannick Becker: CNRS
Romane Phelipon: CNRS
Damien Marie: CNRS
Siham Bouziane: CNRS
Rebecca Marchetti: CNRS
Julien Sein: CNRS
Lionel Velly: CNRS
Luc Renaud: CNRS
Alexia Cermolacce: CELPHEDIA
Jean-Luc Anton: CNRS
Bruno Nazarian: CNRS
Olivier Coulon: CNRS
Adrien Meguerditchian: CNRS

Nature Communications, 2024, vol. 15, issue 1, 1-6

Abstract: Abstract The planum temporale (PT), a key language area, is specialized in the left hemisphere in prelinguistic infants and considered as a marker of the pre-wired language-ready brain. However, studies have reported a similar structural PT left-asymmetry not only in various adult non-human primates, but also in newborn baboons. Its shared functional links with language are not fully understood. Here we demonstrate using previously obtained MRI data that early detection of PT left-asymmetry among 27 newborn baboons (Papio anubis, age range of 4 days to 2 months) predicts the future development of right-hand preference for communicative gestures but not for non-communicative actions. Specifically, only newborns with a larger left-than-right PT were more likely to develop a right-handed communication once juvenile, a contralateral brain-gesture link which is maintained in a group of 70 mature baboons. This finding suggests that early PT asymmetry may be a common inherited prewiring of the primate brain for the ontogeny of ancient lateralised properties shared between monkey gesture and human language.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-47277-6

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