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Grawunder S, Uomini N, Samuni L, Bortolato T, Girard-Buttoz C, Wittig RM, Crockford C. Chimpanzee vowel-like sounds and voice quality suggest formant space expansion through the hominoid lineage. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2022; 377:20200455. [PMID: 34775819 PMCID: PMC8591386 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0455] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/13/2021] [Accepted: 09/20/2021] [Indexed: 11/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The origins of human speech are obscure; it is still unclear what aspects are unique to our species or shared with our evolutionary cousins, in part due to a lack of a common framework for comparison. We asked what chimpanzee and human vocal production acoustics have in common. We examined visible supra-laryngeal articulators of four major chimpanzee vocalizations (hoos, grunts, barks, screams) and their associated acoustic structures, using techniques from human phonetic and animal communication analysis. Data were collected from wild adult chimpanzees, Taï National Park, Ivory Coast. Both discriminant and principal component classification procedures revealed classification of call types. Discriminating acoustic features include voice quality and formant structure, mirroring phonetic features in human speech. Chimpanzee lip and jaw articulation variables also offered similar discrimination of call types. Formant maps distinguished call types with different vowel-like sounds. Comparing our results with published primate data, humans show less F1-F2 correlation and further expansion of the vowel space, particularly for [i] sounds. Unlike recent studies suggesting monkeys achieve human vowel space, we conclude from our results that supra-laryngeal articulatory capacities show moderate evolutionary change, with vowel space expansion continuing through hominoid evolution. Studies on more primate species will be required to substantiate this. This article is part of the theme issue 'Voice modulation: from origin and mechanism to social impact (Part II)'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sven Grawunder
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Empirical Linguistics, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
| | - Natalie Uomini
- Department of Linguistic and Cultural Evolution, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
| | - Liran Samuni
- Department of Human Evolutionary Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, MA, USA
- Tai Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Ivory Coast
| | - Tatiana Bortolato
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- The Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, 69675 Bron, Lyon, France
- Tai Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Ivory Coast
| | - Cédric Girard-Buttoz
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- The Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, 69675 Bron, Lyon, France
- Tai Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Ivory Coast
| | - Roman M. Wittig
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- The Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, 69675 Bron, Lyon, France
- Tai Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Ivory Coast
| | - Catherine Crockford
- Department of Human Behavior, Ecology and Culture, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- The Ape Social Mind Lab, Institut des Sciences Cognitives, CNRS, 67 Boulevard Pinel, 69675 Bron, Lyon, France
- Tai Chimpanzee Project, Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques, 01 BP 1303, Ivory Coast
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Boë LJ, Sawallis TR, Fagot J, Badin P, Barbier G, Captier G, Ménard L, Heim JL, Schwartz JL. Which way to the dawn of speech?: Reanalyzing half a century of debates and data in light of speech science. SCIENCE ADVANCES 2019; 5:eaaw3916. [PMID: 32076631 PMCID: PMC7000245 DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.aaw3916] [Citation(s) in RCA: 20] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/16/2018] [Accepted: 10/10/2019] [Indexed: 06/10/2023]
Abstract
Recent articles on primate articulatory abilities are revolutionary regarding speech emergence, a crucial aspect of language evolution, by revealing a human-like system of proto-vowels in nonhuman primates and implicitly throughout our hominid ancestry. This article presents both a schematic history and the state of the art in primate vocalization research and its importance for speech emergence. Recent speech research advances allow more incisive comparison of phylogeny and ontogeny and also an illuminating reinterpretation of vintage primate vocalization data. This review produces three major findings. First, even among primates, laryngeal descent is not uniquely human. Second, laryngeal descent is not required to produce contrasting formant patterns in vocalizations. Third, living nonhuman primates produce vocalizations with contrasting formant patterns. Thus, evidence now overwhelmingly refutes the long-standing laryngeal descent theory, which pushes back "the dawn of speech" beyond ~200 ka ago to over ~20 Ma ago, a difference of two orders of magnitude.
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Affiliation(s)
- Louis-Jean Boë
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
| | | | - Joël Fagot
- Brain and Language Research Institute, Aix-Marseille University, Aix-en-Provence, France
- Cognitive Psychology Laboratory, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique and Aix-Marseille University, Marseille, France
| | - Pierre Badin
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
| | - Guillaume Barbier
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
- School of Speech Pathology and Audiology, Université de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | | | - Lucie Ménard
- Laboratoire de Phonétique, Université du Québec à Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- Center for Research on Brain, Language, and Music, Montréal, Québec, Canada
| | - Jean-Louis Heim
- Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
- Institut de Paléontologie Humaine, Paris, France
| | - Jean-Luc Schwartz
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, Grenoble INP, Institute of Engineering Univ. Grenoble Alpes, GIPSA-lab, Grenoble, France
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Mirville MO, Ridley AR, Samedi J, Vecellio V, Ndagijimana F, Stoinski TS, Grueter CC. Factors influencing individual participation during intergroup interactions in mountain gorillas. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.08.003] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/08/2023]
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Pika S, Wilkinson R, Kendrick KH, Vernes SC. Taking turns: bridging the gap between human and animal communication. Proc Biol Sci 2018; 285:20180598. [PMID: 29875303 PMCID: PMC6015850 DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2018.0598] [Citation(s) in RCA: 73] [Impact Index Per Article: 12.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/15/2018] [Accepted: 04/26/2018] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
Language, humans' most distinctive trait, still remains a 'mystery' for evolutionary theory. It is underpinned by a universal infrastructure-cooperative turn-taking-which has been suggested as an ancient mechanism bridging the existing gap between the articulate human species and their inarticulate primate cousins. However, we know remarkably little about turn-taking systems of non-human animals, and methodological confounds have often prevented meaningful cross-species comparisons. Thus, the extent to which cooperative turn-taking is uniquely human or represents a homologous and/or analogous trait is currently unknown. The present paper draws attention to this promising research avenue by providing an overview of the state of the art of turn-taking in four animal taxa-birds, mammals, insects and anurans. It concludes with a new comparative framework to spur more research into this research domain and to test which elements of the human turn-taking system are shared across species and taxa.
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Affiliation(s)
- Simone Pika
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Deutscher Platz 6, 04103 Leipzig, Germany
- Department of Comparative Biocognition, Institute of Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Osnabrück, Germany
| | - Ray Wilkinson
- Department of Human Communication Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK
| | - Kobin H Kendrick
- Department of Language and Linguistic Science, University of York, York, UK
| | - Sonja C Vernes
- Neurogenetics of Vocal Communication, Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
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Abstract
We argue that dynamic-systems theory (DST) offers researchers a promising alternative to the information-processing framework that has dominated the study of primate social communication. DST rejects a linear view of communication in which a sender transmits a signal to a receiver, who then decodes that signal for its information content. Instead, dynamic-systems theory envisions communication as an intrinsically creative process that unfolds as communicating partners continuously adjust their behaviors to one another. This process of continual adjustment, termed co-regulation, can be identified in the social communication of the African great apes. When researchers study communication in terms of co-regulated social interaction, new insights and research questions emerge that may help anthropologists better understand the nature of the vocal and gestural behaviors of our closest living relatives.
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Hedwig D, Mundry R, Robbins MM, Boesch C. Audience effects, but not environmental influences, explain variation in gorilla close distance vocalizations-A test of the acoustic adaptation hypothesis. Am J Primatol 2015; 77:1239-52. [PMID: 26352614 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.22462] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/15/2015] [Revised: 06/05/2015] [Accepted: 08/12/2015] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Close distance vocalizations are an integral part of primate vocal communication. They exhibit large acoustic variation which has been suggested to constitute flexible responses to the highly variable social setting of group living animals. However, a recent study suggested that acoustic variation in close distance calls of baboons may also arise from acoustic adaptations to environmental factors in order to counteract sound degradation. We tested whether the variation in calling rate and acoustic structure of gorilla close distance vocalizations may serve to counteract distorting effects of vegetation during sound propagation. Using focal animal sampling we recorded the vocal behavior of 15 adult individuals living in two groups: one group of western lowland gorillas Gorilla gorilla gorilla and one group of mountain gorillas Gorilla beringei beringei. We considered the distance between the caller and its nearest neighbor as the minimum transmission distance of calls; while vegetation density was quantified through measures of visibility. Our analysis revealed vocal plasticity in gorilla close calls in relation to changes in visibility and nearest neighbor distance. However, the observed changes in fundamental frequency and calling rate are unlikely to counteract degrading effects of vegetation, but rather seem to reflect reactions to variation in spatial and visual separation from other group members, similar to the audience effects demonstrated in a range of other species. We propose that vocal plasticity to counteract distorting environmental effects may not be prevalent across taxa and perhaps confined to species living in heterogeneous habitats with highly variable transmission conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Daniela Hedwig
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Roger Mundry
- Department of Primatology and Department of Developmental and Comparative Psychology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Martha M Robbins
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
| | - Christophe Boesch
- Department of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany
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Hedwig D, Mundry R, Robbins MM, Boesch C. Contextual correlates of syntactic variation in mountain and western gorilla close-distance vocalizations: Indications for lexical or phonological syntax? Anim Cogn 2014; 18:423-35. [DOI: 10.1007/s10071-014-0812-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 21] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/12/2014] [Revised: 09/22/2014] [Accepted: 09/25/2014] [Indexed: 10/24/2022]
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Salmi R, Hammerschmidt K, Doran-Sheehy DM. Western Gorilla Vocal Repertoire and Contextual Use of Vocalizations. Ethology 2013. [DOI: 10.1111/eth.12122] [Citation(s) in RCA: 46] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/30/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Roberta Salmi
- Interdepartmental Doctoral Program in Anthropological Sciences; Stony Brook University; Stony Brook; NY; USA
| | - Kurt Hammerschmidt
- Cognitive Ethology Laboratory; German Primate Center; Göttingen; Germany
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O'Connell-Rodwell CE, Wood JD, Wyman M, Redfield S, Puria S, Hart LA. Antiphonal vocal bouts associated with departures in free-ranging African elephant family groups (Loxodonta africana). BIOACOUSTICS 2012. [DOI: 10.1080/09524622.2012.686166] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/28/2022]
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Forrester GS. A multidimensional approach to investigations of behaviour: revealing structure in animal communication signals. Anim Behav 2008. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2008.05.026] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/21/2022]
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Rendall D. Acoustic correlates of caller identity and affect intensity in the vowel-like grunt vocalizations of baboons. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2003; 113:3390-402. [PMID: 12822809 DOI: 10.1121/1.1568942] [Citation(s) in RCA: 128] [Impact Index Per Article: 6.1] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 05/20/2023]
Abstract
Comparative, production-based research on animal vocalizations can allow assessments of continuity in vocal communication processes across species, including humans, and may aid in the development of general frameworks relating specific constitutional attributes of callers to acoustic-structural details of their vocal output. Analyses were undertaken on vowel-like baboon grunts to examine variation attributable to caller identity and the intensity of the affective state underlying call production. Six hundred six grunts from eight adult females were analyzed. Grunts derived from 128 bouts of calling in two behavioral contexts: concerted group movements and social interactions involving mothers and their young infants. Each context was subdivided into a high- and low-arousal condition. Thirteen acoustic features variously predicted to reflect variation in either caller identity or arousal intensity were measured for each grunt bout, including tempo-, source- and filter-related features. Grunt bouts were highly individually distinctive, differing in a variety of acoustic dimensions but with some indication that filter-related features contributed disproportionately to individual distinctiveness. In contrast, variation according to arousal condition was associated primarily with tempo- and source-related features, many matching those identified as vehicles of affect expression in other nonhuman primate species and in human speech and other nonverbal vocal signals.
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Affiliation(s)
- Drew Rendall
- Department of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of Lethbridge, Lethbridge, Alberta T1K 3M4, Canada.
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Gros-Louis J. Contexts and behavioral correlates of trill vocalizations in wild white-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus). Am J Primatol 2002; 57:189-202. [PMID: 12210671 DOI: 10.1002/ajp.10042] [Citation(s) in RCA: 64] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/11/2022]
Abstract
Primate vocalizations that appear to occur independently of specific contexts typically are considered to be contact calls. However, results from several recent studies indicate that these calls function to facilitate social interactions. White-faced capuchin monkeys (Cebus capucinus) emit a high-frequency vocalization, termed a "trill," in social interactions and during travel. In this study, immatures emitted most trills, but adult females also trilled; by contrast, adult males rarely trilled. Infants emitted the majority of trills, and they trilled at significantly higher rates than adult females. Infants trilled most when approaching other individuals. Furthermore, infants emitted proportionately more trills than other age classes when approaching other individuals. I therefore focused on the detailed context and immediate behavioral correlates of trilling by infants. Infants that trilled when approaching others tended to interact affiliatively with them subsequently (i.e., climbing on, touching, receiving grooming, and performing food inspection) more than infants that did not trill when approaching. Therefore, infant trilling may have had an immediate effect on the recipient's behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julie Gros-Louis
- Department of Psychology, Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana 47405, USA.
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Weiss DJ, Garibaldi BT, Hauser MD. The production and perception of long calls by cotton-top tamarins (Saguinus oedipus): acoustic analyses and playback experiments. J Comp Psychol 2001; 115:258-71. [PMID: 11594495 DOI: 10.1037/0735-7036.115.3.258] [Citation(s) in RCA: 75] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/08/2022]
Abstract
The authors' goal was to provide a better understanding of the relationship between vocal production and perception in nonhuman primate communication. To this end, the authors examined the cotton-top tamarin's (Saguinus oedipus) combination long call (CLC). In Part 1 of this study, the authors carried out a series of acoustic analyses designed to determine the kind of information potentially encoded in the tamarin's CLC. Using factorial analyses of variance and multiple discriminant analyses, the authors explored whether the CLC encodes 3 types of identity information: individual, sex, and social group. Results revealed that exemplars could be reliably assigned to these 3 functional classes on the basis of a suite of spectrotemporal features. In Part 2 of this study, the authors used a series of habituation-dishabituation playback experiments to test whether tamarins attend to the encoded information about individual identity. The authors 1st tested for individual discrimination when tamarins were habituated to a series of calls from 1 tamarin and then played back a test call from a novel tamarin; both opposite- and same-sex pairings were tested. Results showed that tamarins dishabituated when caller identity changed but transferred habituation when caller identity was held constant and a new exemplar was played (control condition). Follow-up playback experiments revealed an asymmetry between the authors' acoustic analyses of individual identity and the tamarins' capacity to discriminate among vocal signatures; whereas all colony members have distinctive vocal signatures, we found that not all tamarins were equally discriminable based on the habituation-dishabituation paradigm.
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Affiliation(s)
- D J Weiss
- Department of Psychology, Harvard University, USA.
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Cheney DL, Seyfarth RM. Reconciliatory grunts by dominant female baboons influence victims' behaviour. Anim Behav 1997; 54:409-18. [PMID: 9268473 DOI: 10.1006/anbe.1996.0438] [Citation(s) in RCA: 86] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/05/2023]
Abstract
Following aggressive interactions, dominant female baboons, Papio cynocephalus ursinusoccasionally grunt to their victims. To examine the effect of these apparently reconciliatory grunts on victims' subsequent behaviour, a series of playback experiments was designed to mimic reconciliation. Victims were played their opponents' grunts in the minutes immediately following a fight and then observed for half an hour. After hearing these grunts, victims approached their former opponents and also tolerated their opponents' approaches at significantly higher rates than they did under control conditions. They were also supplanted by their opponents at significantly lower rates. By contrast, playbacks of control females' grunts did not influence victims' behaviour. Playbacks of reconciliatory grunts did not increase the rate at which opponents approached or initiated friendly interactions with their former victims. Playbacks of reconciliatory grunts, therefore, appeared to influence victims', but not opponents', perception of recent events.
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Affiliation(s)
- DL Cheney
- Departments of Biology and Psychology, University of Pennsylvania
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