Processing local transitions versus long-distance syntactic hierarchies.

A recent study by Fitch and Hauser reported that finite-state grammars can be learned by non-human primates, whereas phrase-structure grammars cannot. Humans, by contrast, learn both grammars easily. This species difference is taken as the critical juncture in the evolution of the human language faculty. Given the far-reaching relevance of this conclusion, the question arises as to whether the distinction between these two types of grammars finds its reflection in different neural systems within the human brain.