The Neurocom proposal compares the neural substrate of language and communication faculties in adult humans, babies and monkeys, using recently developed fMRI in babies and awake monkeys together with adult fMRI and NIRS in babies. The project investigates the neural substrates of different communication channels (speech, calls, emotional utterances and gestures) and of speaker invariance. It studies the neural processing of action interpretation in particular intentions and rational interpretation. Development and neural substrate of communicative referential cues will be studied. The final part addresses thecore of language (recursion) by studying hierarchical structure in language and grammar at the behavioral and neural level. The imaging experiments will be supplemented with behavioral studies to calibrate the stimuli and tasks. The consortium brings together psychologists, linguists, ethologists, cognitive scientists and neuroscientists from four countries, including one new member state. The expected result is an informed view on what is uniquely human in the language faculty and a deeper understanding of the neural substrate of language and communication and its development as well as of the homology between human and monkey cortex.