Brain story. Part 4, First among equals.

Prof. Susan Greenfield (Univ. of Oxford) discusses what it is that makes humans different from the rest of the animal world. She focuses on the human ability to work towards long-term goals and observes the results of damage to the frontal lobe of the brain, which seems to be the location of this skill. But planning is not a uniquely human skill - chimpanzees in a study by the University of Georgia demonstrated that they too can do this. Humans, however, have developed language which accounts for the rapid development of our culture; but some scientists argue that chimps, too, are capable of acquiring language. There seems to be a missing link between chimpanzees and humans, indicated by the post-Neanderthal appearance of new kinds of tools indicating a development from modular mental ability to lateral thinking. Among those taking part in the programme are Dr. Adrian Owen (MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, Cambridge) and Prof. Michael Gazzaniga (Dartmouth College, New Hampshire U.S).