AJP - Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology, Vol 246, Issue 6 904-R911, Copyright © 1984 by American Physiological Society
Search for a common neurocognitive mechanism for language and movements
O. J. Tzeng and W. S. Wang
Examination of the common properties in the three Ss (i.e., speech, script,
and sign languages) of human communication suggests that duality of
patterning is the key feature in the development of these communication
systems. This feature is in essence a sequential strategy that serves as an
interface between the increasing number of messages and the limited
capacity of our signal production-reception systems. It is argued that
since the left hemisphere has a much finer temporal resolution than the
right hemisphere, both language and movement systems might have made use of
this advantage provided by the left hemisphere to fulfill the requirements
of sequential strategy in their early evolution.
