Gestures as important as words to make one understood

Gestures and words form a single communication system which enhances the expression intended as the ability to make oneself understood, according to a new research that demonstrates the role of gestures in speech "prosody".

Marina Nespor, a neuroscientist at the International School for Advanced Studies (SISSA) of Trieste. Nespor, with Alan Langus, a SISSA research fellow, and Bahia Guellai from the Universite Paris Ouest Nanterre La Defence, conducted the investigation at SISSA.

Langus asserted that prosodic information, for the person receiving the message, was a combination of auditory and visual cues. The 'superior' aspects at the cognitive processing level of spoken language were mapped to the motor-programs responsible for the production of both speech sounds and accompanying hand gestures.

Nespor said that in human communication, voice was not sufficient, even the torso and in particular hand movements were involved, as were facial expressions.

The study is published in Frontiers in Psychology.