Yannick Becker

Yannick Becker
Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences | CBS · Department of Neuropsychology

PhD

About

19
Publications
5,309
Reads
How we measure 'reads'
A 'read' is counted each time someone views a publication summary (such as the title, abstract, and list of authors), clicks on a figure, or views or downloads the full-text. Learn more
349
Citations
Introduction
In my PhD (supervised by Adrien Meguerditchian and Olivier Coulon), I was investigating the evolution of language and its underlying brain structures. I am particularly interested in the neuro-development of infant baboons and their gestural communication and what that tells us about our language evolution. Having completed a wonderful transdisciplinary undergraduate degree (Sciences et Humanities) and a Masters in Cognitive Neuroscience, I am very thirsty for knowledge in a variety of fields.
Additional affiliations
April 2018 - June 2018
Aix-Marseille Université
Position
  • Intern
Description
  • 2nd year Master’s project in “Laboratoire des Neurosciences Sensorielles et Cognitives”, Marseille, C. Lopez, (3 months), Searching for cortical activation of the vestibular system (EEG)
December 2017 - March 2018
Aix-Marseille Université
Position
  • Intern
Description
  • 2nd year Master’s project at CNRS “Station de Primatologie Rousset”, “LPC lab” with A. Meguerditchian, (3 months), Origin of human language, Linking communicative baboon gesture with brain anatomy (MRI processing)
May 2017 - June 2017
Aix-Marseille Université
Position
  • Intern
Description
  • 1st year Master’s project in “Institut des Neurosciences de la Timone” Marseille, C. Deruelle and G. Masson lab (2 months), Development of visual anticipatory behaviour in children, (eye-tracking methods)
Education
October 2018 - March 2022
CNRS/Aix-Marseile Université
Field of study
  • Neuroscience
September 2016 - October 2018
Aix-Marseille Université
Field of study
  • Master of Neuroscience (Integrative and Cognitive)
September 2016 - June 2017

Publications

Publications (19)
Article
Full-text available
The planum temporale (PT), a key language area, is specialized in the left hemisphere in prelinguistic infants and considered as a marker of the pre-wired language-ready brain. However, studies have reported a similar structural PT left-asymmetry not only in various adult non-human primates, but also in newborn baboons. Its shared functional links...
Article
We are pleased to respond to the recent review article of Giampiccolo and Duffau¹ published in Brain about the temporal terminations of the arcuate fasciculus. The arcuate fasciculus is regarded a major white matter pathway for language in the human brain.² As such, there has been massive cross-disciplinary interest about the arcuate fasciculus sin...
Article
Full-text available
Humans are the only species that can speak. Nonhuman primates, however, share some ‘domain-general’ cognitive properties that are essential to language processes. Whether these shared cognitive properties between humans and nonhuman primates are the results of a continuous evolution [homologies] or of a convergent evolution [analogies] remain diffi...
Article
Full-text available
Manual gestures and speech recruit a common neural network, involving Broca's area in the left hemisphere. Such speech-gesture integration gave rise to theories on the critical role of manual gesturing in the origin of language. Within this evolutionary framework, research on gestural communication in our closer primate relatives has received renew...
Article
The Arcuate Fasciculus (AF) is of considerable interdisciplinary interest, because of its major implication in language processing. Theories about language brain evolution are based on anatomical differences in the AF across primates. However, changing methodologies and nomenclatures have resulted in conflicting findings regarding interspecies AF d...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Arcuate Fasciculus (AF) is of considerable interdisciplinary interest, because of its major implication in language processing. Theories about language brain evolution are based on anatomical differences in the AF across primates. However, changing methodologies and nomenclatures have resulted in conflicting findings regarding interspecies AF d...
Preprint
Full-text available
Humans are the only species that can speak. Nonhuman primates, however, share some "domain-general" cognitive properties that are essential to language processes. Whether these shared cognitive properties of humans and nonhuman primates are the result of a continuous or convergent evolution can be investigated by comparing their respective underlyi...
Article
Full-text available
The Planum temporale (PT) is one of the key hubs of the language network in the human brain. The gross asymmetry of this perisylvian region toward the left brain was considered as the most emblematic marker of hemispheric specialization of language processes in the brain. Interestingly, this neuroanatomical signature was documented also in newborn...
Preprint
Full-text available
The Planum Temporale (PT) is one of the key hubs of the language network in the human brain. The gross asymmetry of this perisylvian region toward the left brain was considered as the most emblematic marker of hemispheric specialization of language processes in the brain. Interestingly, this neuroanatomical signature was documented also in newborn...
Preprint
Full-text available
Manual gestures and speech recruit a common neural network, involving Broca area in the left hemisphere. Evolutionary questions about this language organisation led to a renewed attention for comparative research on gestural communication in our closer primate relatives and its potential language-like features. Here, using in vivo anatomical MRI in...
Article
Full-text available
The “language-ready” brain theory suggests that the infant brain is pre-wired for language acquisition prior to language exposure. As a potential brain marker of such a language readiness, a leftward structural brain asymmetry was found in human infants for the Planum Temporale (PT), which overlaps with Wernicke's area. In the present longitudinal...
Article
Nonhuman primate neuroimaging is on the cusp of a transformation, much in the same way its human counterpart was in 2010, when the Human Connectome Project was launched to accelerate progress. Inspired by an open data-sharing initiative, the global community recently met and, in this article, breaks through obstacles to define its ambitions.
Article
Full-text available
Language is a distinguishing characteristic of our species, and the course of its evolution is one of the hardest problems in science. It has long been generally considered that human speech requires a low larynx, and that the high larynx of nonhuman primates should preclude their producing the vowel systems universally found in human language. Exa...
Data
Using pole settings to avoid LPC formant detection errors. Example LPC analyses of two grunts (top) and two barks (bottom), with 30 poles (red) and 60 poles (blue) superimposed on an FFT analysis. Both LPC & FFT calculated using MATLAB. For the grunts (F0 low) only the LPC with 60 poles fits the FFT well. LPC with 30 poles misses the first formant...
Data
Supporting information. Complementary information on the rationale of the method, parameter settings for LPC analyses, MAS computation and normalization, results, and data file and software accessibility. (DOCX)
Data
Anatomy of the tongue. Anatomic sagittal view of the head of a female baboon: (1) hyoid bone, (2) air sac, (3) thyroid cartilage, (4) epiglottis, (5) arytenoid cartilage, (6) vocal folds and glottis, (7) cricoid cartilage, (8) trachea, (9) lips, (10) incisors, (11) mandible, (12) hard palate, (13) velum, (14) pharyngeal wall, (15-16-17) anterior GG...
Data
Spectrograms. Examples of spectrograms (from Praat, available at http://www.fon.hum.uva.nl/praat/) and overlaid FFT and LPC spectra (calculated using MATLAB) for grunts (♀♂), copulations calls (♀), wa- (♂), -hoo(♂), barks (♀), yaks (♀). (LPC was set to 60 poles for grunts, copulations calls (♀),-hoo(♀) and yaks, 30 poles for barks, and wa-. Samplin...
Article
Full-text available
Language is a distinguishing characteristic of our species, and the course of its evolution is one of the hardest problems in science. It has long been generally considered that human speech requires a low larynx, and that the high larynx of nonhuman primates should preclude their producing the vowel systems universally found in human language. Exa...

Network

Cited By