Okay, that headline is a little misleading, but according to this piece a tiny part of the monkey brain is able to process sight and sound simultaneously which could shed light on both ventriloquists and synesthesia, the neurological condition in which two or more senses are intertwined. Confusing?
“Our results show that there are interactions between the sensory pathways that occur very early in the process, which implies that the integration of the different senses may be a more primitive process and one not requiring high-level brain function,” Groh said. “This means that visual and auditory information gets combined quite early, and before the ‘thinking part’ of the brain can make sense of it.”
The implications for Jerry Mahoney here are clear, since the enjoyment of puppets may not require high-level brain function.
PS:
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Very odd coincidence; a friend of mine, Niall O’Sullivan, just published a book of poetry called ‘Ventriloquism for Monkeys’