Studies of primate premotor cortex, and, in particular, of the so-called “mirror system” suggest a double hand/mouth motor command system that may have evolved initially in the context of ingestion, and later formed a platform for combined manual and vocal communication. In humans, manual gesture, when it accompanies speech, is tightly integrated with speech production. Speech production itself is influenced by executing or observing transitive actions, and manual actions also play an important role in language development in children, from the babbling stage onwards. Behavioural data reported here even show a reciprocal influence between word and symbolic gestures. Studies employing neuroimaging and repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (rTMS) techniques suggest that the system governing both speech and gesture is located in Broca’s area.
2017. The interrelatedness between infants’ communicative gestures and lexicon size: A longitudinal study. Infant Behavior and Development 48 ► pp. 88 ff.
Cochet, Hélène
2016. Manual asymmetries and hemispheric specialization: Insight from developmental studies. Neuropsychologia 93 ► pp. 335 ff.
Cochet, Hélène & Richard W. Byrne
2013. Evolutionary origins of human handedness: evaluating contrasting hypotheses. Animal Cognition 16:4 ► pp. 531 ff.
Cochet, Hélène, Marianne Jover & Jacques Vauclair
2011. Hand preference for pointing gestures and bimanual manipulation around the vocabulary spurt period. Journal of Experimental Child Psychology 110:3 ► pp. 393 ff.
Kendon, Adam
2017. Reflections on the “gesture-first” hypothesis of language origins. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 24:1 ► pp. 163 ff.
McNeill, David
2014. Gesture–speech unity. Language, Interaction and Acquisition 5:2 ► pp. 137 ff.
Meguerditchian, Adrien
2022. On the gestural origins of language: what baboons’ gestures and brain have told us after 15 years of research. Ethology Ecology & Evolution 34:3 ► pp. 288 ff.
Pezzulo, G.
2012. The “Interaction Engine”: A Common Pragmatic Competence Across Linguistic and Nonlinguistic Interactions. IEEE Transactions on Autonomous Mental Development 4:2 ► pp. 105 ff.
2019. Profiling and Its Facets. In Profiling Humans from their Voice, ► pp. 3 ff.
Vauclair, Jacques & Hélène Cochet
2013. Hand preference for pointing and language development in toddlers. Developmental Psychobiology 55:7 ► pp. 757 ff.
Vauclair, Jacques & Hélène Cochet
2016. La communication gestuelle : Une voie royale pour le développement du langage. Enfance N° 4:4 ► pp. 419 ff.
Vauclair, Jacques & Hélène Cochet
2016. La communication gestuelle : Une voie royale pour le développement du langage. Enfance 2016:04 ► pp. 419 ff.
Wagner, Petra, Zofia Malisz & Stefan Kopp
2014. Gesture and speech in interaction: An overview. Speech Communication 57 ► pp. 209 ff.
Wilson, Margaret
2008. How Did We Get from There to Here? An Evolutionary Perspective on Embodied Cognition. In Handbook of Cognitive Science, ► pp. 373 ff.
Young, Gerald
2019. Animal Laterality Research. In Causality and Development, ► pp. 109 ff.
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