Cognitive psychologist Elizabeth Spelke tests the representational thinking skills of children by asking them to relate a map to the real world.

Alan Alda meets with scientist Juliane Kaminski and a very smart dog named C.J. Dogs have some talents that even chimpanzees don't.

A new study looked at how macaque monkeys respond to other monkeys’ efforts at communication in the form of drumming or vocalizing.

Dr. Svante Pääbo, an evolutionary biologist featured in The Human Spark, was recently awarded the 2009 Kistler Prize. Watch video of Dr. Pääbo with Alan Alda.

Language is central to Steven Pinker's conception of what makes us human.

One of the earliest things American children are taught is how to count items out loud. But how much do we understand about numbers before we learn this vocabulary?

The scientists in Oregon wanted to see how brains react to mistakes in grammar, even when the listener isn’t fluent in the language being spoken!

In Oregon, we peered with both an MRI and a brain wave monitor into Alan’s brain to find out how he employs it for language and tool use.

All great apes, including humans, have vocal tract air sacs that they use to call out loud. Ours have evolved to be smaller than the other apes’, leaving them with louder voices.

Brian Moore is one of the people who has volunteered a couple of times for Helen Neville’s language fMRI studies at the University of Oregon. Find out why in this video clip.