Monkey Business

Scientists have discovered that baboons can distinguish four letter English words from nonsense words. "A 2011 study concluded that the visual analysis of letters, called orthographic processing, happens in a region of the brain associated with object recognition, suggesting that when we read, we are adapting brain pathways which evolved to recognize everyday objects, like rocks and trees, to identify printed words,"(Scudellari, 2012).  Based on this finding researchers at the National Center for Scientific Research and Université d’Aix-Marseille that an existing language might not need to exist for the brain to engage in orthographic processing.  Once the baboons were taught which words weren't nonsense words they remembered them with surprising accuracy.  This research could lead to further investigations about whether words can be processed as visual objects.http://the-scientist.com/2012/04/12/monkeys-read-writing/