1
|
Prieur J, Barbu S, Blois‐Heulin C, Lemasson A. The origins of gestures and language: history, current advances and proposed theories. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2019; 95:531-554. [DOI: 10.1111/brv.12576] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/24/2019] [Revised: 11/30/2019] [Accepted: 12/03/2019] [Indexed: 12/16/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Jacques Prieur
- Department of Education and PsychologyComparative Developmental Psychology, Freie Universität Berlin Berlin Germany
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
| | - Stéphanie Barbu
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
| | - Catherine Blois‐Heulin
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
| | - Alban Lemasson
- Univ Rennes, Normandie Univ, CNRS, EthoS (Ethologie animale et humaine) – UMR 6552 F‐35380 Paimpont France
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Levréro F, Touitou S, Frédet J, Nairaud B, Guéry JP, Lemasson A. Social bonding drives vocal exchanges in Bonobos. Sci Rep 2019; 9:711. [PMID: 30679444 PMCID: PMC6346008 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-018-36024-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 19] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/09/2015] [Accepted: 10/28/2018] [Indexed: 11/23/2022] Open
Abstract
The origin of human speech is still a hotly debated topic in science. Evidence of socially-guided acoustic flexibility and proto-conversational rules has been found in several monkey species, but is lacking in social and cooperative great apes. Here we investigated spontaneous vocal interactions within a peaceful context in captive bonobos to reveal that vocal interactions obey temporally and social rules. Dyadic vocal interactions were characterized by call overlap avoidance and short inter-call intervals. Bonobos preferentially responded to conspecifics with whom they maintained close bonds. We also found that vocal sharing rate (production rate of shared acoustic variants within each given dyad) was mostly explained by the age difference of callers, as other individual characteristics (sex, kinship) and social parameters (affinity in spatial proximity and in vocal interactions) were not. Our results show that great apes spontaneously display primitive conversation rules guided by social bonds. The demonstration that such coordinated vocal interactions are shared between monkeys, apes and humans fills a significant gap in our knowledge of vocal communication within the primate phylogeny and highlights the universal feature of social influence in vocal interactions.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Florence Levréro
- Université de Lyon/Saint-Etienne, Equipe Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle, Neuro-PSI, CNRS UMR 9197, Saint-Etienne, France.
| | - Sonia Touitou
- Université de Lyon/Saint-Etienne, Equipe Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle, Neuro-PSI, CNRS UMR 9197, Saint-Etienne, France
| | - Julia Frédet
- Université de Lyon/Saint-Etienne, Equipe Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle, Neuro-PSI, CNRS UMR 9197, Saint-Etienne, France
| | - Baptiste Nairaud
- Université de Lyon/Saint-Etienne, Equipe Neuro-Ethologie Sensorielle, Neuro-PSI, CNRS UMR 9197, Saint-Etienne, France
| | | | - Alban Lemasson
- Université de Rennes, EthoS "Ethologie Animale et Humaine," UMR 6552 -CNRS-Université de Caen Normandie, Station Biologique, 35380, Paimpont, France
| |
Collapse
|
3
|
Konrad CM, Frasier TR, Rendell L, Whitehead H, Gero S. Kinship and association do not explain vocal repertoire variation among individual sperm whales or social units. Anim Behav 2018. [DOI: 10.1016/j.anbehav.2018.09.011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
|
4
|
Challenges Facing the Study of the Evolutionary Origins of Human Right-Handedness and Language. INT J PRIMATOL 2018. [DOI: 10.1007/s10764-018-0038-6] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 12/26/2022]
|
5
|
Ruch H, Zürcher Y, Burkart JM. The function and mechanism of vocal accommodation in humans and other primates. Biol Rev Camb Philos Soc 2017; 93:996-1013. [PMID: 29111610 DOI: 10.1111/brv.12382] [Citation(s) in RCA: 28] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/17/2017] [Revised: 09/26/2017] [Accepted: 10/02/2017] [Indexed: 11/30/2022]
Abstract
The study of non-human animals, in particular primates, can provide essential insights into language evolution. A critical element of language is vocal production learning, i.e. learning how to produce calls. In contrast to other lineages such as songbirds, vocal production learning of completely new signals is strikingly rare in non-human primates. An increasing body of research, however, suggests that various species of non-human primates engage in vocal accommodation and adjust the structure of their calls in response to environmental noise or conspecific vocalizations. To date it is unclear what role vocal accommodation may have played in language evolution, in particular because it summarizes a variety of heterogeneous phenomena which are potentially achieved by different mechanisms. In contrast to non-human primates, accommodation research in humans has a long tradition in psychology and linguistics. Based on theoretical models from these research traditions, we provide a new framework which allows comparing instances of accommodation across species, and studying them according to their underlying mechanism and ultimate biological function. We found that at the mechanistic level, many cases of accommodation can be explained with an automatic perception-production link, but some instances arguably require higher levels of vocal control. Functionally, both human and non-human primates use social accommodation to signal social closeness or social distance to a partner or social group. Together, this indicates that not only some vocal control, but also the communicative function of vocal accommodation to signal social closeness and distance must have evolved prior to the emergence of language, rather than being the result of it. Vocal accommodation as found in other primates has thus endowed our ancestors with pre-adaptations that may have paved the way for language evolution.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Hanna Ruch
- University Research Priority Program Language and Space, University of Zurich, 8032, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Yvonne Zürcher
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
| | - Judith M Burkart
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, 8057, Zürich, Switzerland
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Roberts AI, Roberts SGB. Convergence and divergence in gesture repertoires as an adaptive mechanism for social bonding in primates. ROYAL SOCIETY OPEN SCIENCE 2017; 4:170181. [PMID: 29291049 PMCID: PMC5717623 DOI: 10.1098/rsos.170181] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.9] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/03/2017] [Accepted: 10/25/2017] [Indexed: 06/07/2023]
Abstract
A key challenge for primates living in large, stable social groups is managing social relationships. Chimpanzee gestures may act as a time-efficient social bonding mechanism, and the presence (homogeneity) and absence (heterogeneity) of overlap in repertoires in particular may play an important role in social bonding. However, how homogeneity and heterogeneity in the gestural repertoire of primates relate to social interaction is poorly understood. We used social network analysis and generalized linear mixed modelling to examine this question in wild chimpanzees. The repertoire size of both homogeneous and heterogeneous visual, tactile and auditory gestures was associated with the duration of time spent in social bonding behaviour, centrality in the social bonding network and demography. The audience size of partners who displayed similar or different characteristics to the signaller (e.g. same or opposite age or sex category) also influenced the use of homogeneous and heterogeneous gestures. Homogeneous and heterogeneous gestures were differentially associated with the presence of emotional reactions in response to the gesture and the presence of a change in the recipient's behaviour. Homogeneity and heterogeneity of gestural communication play a key role in maintaining a differentiated set of strong and weak social relationships in complex, multilevel societies.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Anna Ilona Roberts
- Department of Psychology, University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester CH1 4BJ, UK
| | - Sam George Bradley Roberts
- Department of Psychology, University of Chester, Parkgate Road, Chester CH1 4BJ, UK
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Torti V, Bonadonna G, De Gregorio C, Valente D, Randrianarison RM, Friard O, Pozzi L, Gamba M, Giacoma C. An intra-population analysis of the indris' song dissimilarity in the light of genetic distance. Sci Rep 2017; 7:10140. [PMID: 28860569 PMCID: PMC5579264 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-017-10656-9] [Citation(s) in RCA: 23] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/29/2017] [Accepted: 08/07/2017] [Indexed: 11/10/2022] Open
Abstract
The increasing interest in the evolution of human language has led several fields of research to focus on primate vocal communication. The 'singing primates', which produce elaborated and complex sequences of vocalizations, are of particular interest for this topic. Indris (Indri indri) are the only singing lemurs and emit songs whose most distinctive portions are "descending phrases" consisting of 2-5 units. We examined how the structure of the indris' phrases varied with genetic relatedness among individuals. We tested whether the acoustic structure could provide conspecifics with information about individual identity and group membership. When analyzing phrase dissimilarity and genetic distance of both sexes, we found significant results for males but not for females. We found that similarity of male song-phrases correlates with kin in both time and frequency parameters, while, for females, this information is encoded only in the frequency of a single type. Song phrases have consistent individual-specific features, but we did not find any potential for advertising group membership. We emphasize the fact that genetic and social factors may play a role in the acoustic plasticity of female indris. Altogether, these findings open a new perspective for future research on the possibility of vocal production learning in these primates.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Valeria Torti
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), University of Torino, Torino, Italy
| | - Giovanna Bonadonna
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), University of Torino, Torino, Italy
| | - Chiara De Gregorio
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), University of Torino, Torino, Italy
| | - Daria Valente
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), University of Torino, Torino, Italy
| | - Rose Marie Randrianarison
- Département de Paléontologie et d'Anthropologie Biologique, Faculté des Sciences, Université d'Antananarivo, Antananarivo, Madagascar
- Groupe d'étude et de recherche sur les primates de Madagascar (GERP), Antananarivo, Madagascar
| | - Olivier Friard
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), University of Torino, Torino, Italy
| | - Luca Pozzi
- Department of Anthropology, The University of Texas at San Antonio, One UTSA Circle, San Antonio, TX, 78249, United States of America
| | - Marco Gamba
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), University of Torino, Torino, Italy.
| | - Cristina Giacoma
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology (DBIOS), University of Torino, Torino, Italy
| |
Collapse
|