Journal article
Auditory and Visual Sequence Learning in Humans and Monkeys using an Artificial Grammar Learning Paradigm
Neuroscience, Vol.389, pp.104-117
10/01/2018
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.06.059
PMCID: PMC6278909
PMID: 28687306
Abstract
Language flexibly supports the human ability to communicate using different sensory modalities, such as writing and reading in the visual modality and speaking and listening in the auditory domain. Although it has been argued that nonhuman primate communication abilities are inherently multisensory, direct behavioural comparisons between human and nonhuman primates are scant. Artificial grammar learning (AGL) tasks and statistical learning experiments can be used to emulate ordering relationships between words in a sentence. However, previous comparative work using such paradigms has primarily investigated sequence learning within a single sensory modality. We used an AGL paradigm to evaluate how humans and macaque monkeys learn and respond to identically structured sequences of either auditory or visual stimuli. In the auditory and visual experiments, we found that both species were sensitive to the ordering relationships between elements in the sequences. Moreover, the humans and monkeys produced largely similar response patterns to the visual and auditory sequences, indicating that the sequences are processed in comparable ways across the sensory modalities. These results provide evidence that human sequence processing abilities stem from an evolutionarily conserved capacity that appears to operate comparably across the sensory modalities in both human and nonhuman primates. The findings set the stage for future neurobiological studies to investigate the multisensory nature of these sequencing operations in nonhuman primates and how they compare to related processes in humans.
This article is part of a Special Issue entitled: Sensory Sequence Processing in the Brain. (C) 2017 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of IBRO.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Auditory and Visual Sequence Learning in Humans and Monkeys using an Artificial Grammar Learning Paradigm
- Creators
- Alice E. Milne - Newcastle UniversityChristopher I. Petkov - University of Newcastle AustraliaBenjamin Wilson - University of Newcastle Australia
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Neuroscience, Vol.389, pp.104-117
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.neuroscience.2017.06.059
- PMID
- 28687306
- PMCID
- PMC6278909
- NLM abbreviation
- Neuroscience
- ISSN
- 0306-4522
- eISSN
- 1873-7544
- Publisher
- Elsevier
- Number of pages
- 14
- Grant note
- WT102961MA / Wellcome Trust; European Commission Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) in the Humanities and Social Sciences Lorentz Institute Medical Research Council (MRC, U.K.); UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Medical Research Council UK (MRC) WT110198/Z/15/Z / Sir Henry Wellcome Postdoctoral Fellowship BB/J009849/1 / BBSRC; UK Research & Innovation (UKRI); Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC)
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 10/01/2018
- Academic Unit
- Iowa Neuroscience Institute; Neurosurgery; Otolaryngology
- Record Identifier
- 9984360008302771
Metrics
19 Record Views