Scientists at the University of Sussex (UK) have shown that chimpanzees and gorillas are, like humans, mostly right-handed . The finding refutes the idea that the dominance of the right side in humans (90% of the individuals are right-handed and only 10% are left-handed) is a unique trait of the species associated with the development of language, as the left hemisphere is specialized in speech and take charge, simultaneously, of motor control on the right side of the body.
"Humans have been handling tools for 2.5 million years, and only 100,000 years communicating through language," says Gillian Forrester, co-author of the work published in the journal Behavioral Brain Research . "Our findings show that both humans and apes have the left hemisphere specialized in directing the right side of the body in sequential movements and tasks , an ability that in the human brain was later extended to allow language development," adds the researcher. .
