It's no secret that monkeys are our closest relatives - so why are they not able to develop a language like ours?
For decades, the most popular answer to this question was that monkeys didn't have the vocal anatomy to talk like we do.
It was believed that their tongue, larynx and lips were anatomically too different from ours - but now, researchers from the University of Vienna have debunked this theory!
The scientists were analyzing the monkey's vocal tracts with x-rays, and the results showed that they were actually a lot more flexible than they had assumed.
"I hope that this new data dispels forever the widespread myth that monkeys and apes cannot speak because of anatomical limitations of their vocal tract"-Tecumseh Fitch, University of Vienna
So if the vocal anatomy is NOT the reason that monkey's can't talk - what IS?
The problem lies in their brain.
Monkeys don't have neural control over their vocal tract muscles, which means they can't use them to create the intricate, very specific sounds made in human speech.
In other words, if a human brain was controlling the monkey's vocal tract, they could talk like we do.
"We have direct connections between our motor cortical neurons and the neurons that actually control the vocal tract musculature, particularly those in charge of the larynx; and we have much more substantial connections, within our cortex, between the auditory cortex—responsible for hearing sounds—and the motor cortex, responsible for making sounds."-Tecumseh Fitch, University of Vienna
The researchers analyzed the tongue, lips and larynx of a macaque monkey as he ate, vocalized and made facial expressions. Then, they fed this data into a computer program that could simulate how a monkey's speech would actually sound like, if a human brain was controlling their vocal parts:
Obviously this is only a simulation, but if you listen closely you can actually make out the words.
This study opens the doors for many new theories, and has definitely debunked the popular myth that monkeys can't talk just because their vocal tracts are formed differently than ours!
Images: 1, 2, Sources: 1, 2, 3,4
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