Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys
Asif A. Ghazanfar, Hjalmar K. Turesson, Joost X. Maier, Ralph van Dinther, Roy D. Patterson, Nikos K. Logothetis
Vocal-tract resonances (or formants) are acoustic signatures in the voice and are related to the shape and length of the vocal tract. Formants play an important role in human communication, helping us not only to distinguish several different speech sounds [1], but also to extract important information related to the physical characteristics of the speaker, so-called indexical cues. How did formants come to play such an important role in human vocal communication? One hypothesis suggests that the ancestral role of formant perception-a role that might be present in extant nonhuman primates-was to provide indexical cues [2-5]. Although formants are present in the acoustic structure of vowel-like calls of monkeys [3-8] and implicated in the discrimination of call types [8-10], it is not known whether they use this feature to extract indexical cues. Here, we investigate whether rhesus monkeys can use the formant structure in their "coo" calls to assess the age-related body size of conspecifics. Using a preferential-looking paradigm [11, 12] and synthetic coo calls in which formant structure simulated an adult/large- or juvenile/small-sounding individual, we demonstrate that untrained monkeys attend to formant cues and link large-sounding coos to large faces and small-sounding coos to small faces-in essence, they can, like humans [13], use formants as indicators of age-related body size.
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Macaca mulatta Medicine & Life Sciences 100%
acoustics Agriculture & Biology 92%
Communication Chemical Compounds 86%
monkeys Agriculture & Biology 85%
body size Agriculture & Biology 79%
Resonance Chemical Compounds 75%
Body Size Medicine & Life Sciences 55%
Ghazanfar, A. A., Turesson, H. K., Maier, J. X., van Dinther, R., Patterson, R. D., & Logothetis, N. K. (2007). Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys. Current Biology, 17(5), 425-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.029
Ghazanfar, Asif A. ; Turesson, Hjalmar K. ; Maier, Joost X. ; van Dinther, Ralph ; Patterson, Roy D. ; Logothetis, Nikos K. / Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys. In: Current Biology. 2007 ; Vol. 17, No. 5. pp. 425-430.
@article{e6e61362015a4890a95cc88f7c51de04,
title = "Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys",
abstract = "Vocal-tract resonances (or formants) are acoustic signatures in the voice and are related to the shape and length of the vocal tract. Formants play an important role in human communication, helping us not only to distinguish several different speech sounds [1], but also to extract important information related to the physical characteristics of the speaker, so-called indexical cues. How did formants come to play such an important role in human vocal communication? One hypothesis suggests that the ancestral role of formant perception-a role that might be present in extant nonhuman primates-was to provide indexical cues [2-5]. Although formants are present in the acoustic structure of vowel-like calls of monkeys [3-8] and implicated in the discrimination of call types [8-10], it is not known whether they use this feature to extract indexical cues. Here, we investigate whether rhesus monkeys can use the formant structure in their {"}coo{"} calls to assess the age-related body size of conspecifics. Using a preferential-looking paradigm [11, 12] and synthetic coo calls in which formant structure simulated an adult/large- or juvenile/small-sounding individual, we demonstrate that untrained monkeys attend to formant cues and link large-sounding coos to large faces and small-sounding coos to small faces-in essence, they can, like humans [13], use formants as indicators of age-related body size.",
keywords = "SYSNEURO",
author = "Ghazanfar, {Asif A.} and Turesson, {Hjalmar K.} and Maier, {Joost X.} and {van Dinther}, Ralph and Patterson, {Roy D.} and Logothetis, {Nikos K.}",
note = "Funding Information: We thank Jonathan Leong and Chris Darwin for earlier efforts in the formulation and design of these experiments, Chand Chandrasekaran for help with Figure 1 , and Tecumseh Fitch, Marc Hauser, Cory Miller, and Laurie Santos for their excellent comments and discussion. This work was supported by the Max Planck Society (A.A.G., H.K.T., J.X.M., and N.K.L.) and the UK Medical Research Council (G9901257; G9900369) and the German Volkswagen Foundation (VWF 1/79 783) (R.V.D. and R.D.P.).",
doi = "10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.029",
journal = "Current Biology",
Ghazanfar, AA, Turesson, HK, Maier, JX, van Dinther, R, Patterson, RD & Logothetis, NK 2007, 'Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys', Current Biology, vol. 17, no. 5, pp. 425-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.029
Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys. / Ghazanfar, Asif A.; Turesson, Hjalmar K.; Maier, Joost X.; van Dinther, Ralph; Patterson, Roy D.; Logothetis, Nikos K.
In: Current Biology, Vol. 17, No. 5, 06.03.2007, p. 425-430.
T1 - Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys
AU - Ghazanfar, Asif A.
AU - Turesson, Hjalmar K.
AU - Maier, Joost X.
AU - van Dinther, Ralph
AU - Patterson, Roy D.
AU - Logothetis, Nikos K.
N1 - Funding Information: We thank Jonathan Leong and Chris Darwin for earlier efforts in the formulation and design of these experiments, Chand Chandrasekaran for help with Figure 1 , and Tecumseh Fitch, Marc Hauser, Cory Miller, and Laurie Santos for their excellent comments and discussion. This work was supported by the Max Planck Society (A.A.G., H.K.T., J.X.M., and N.K.L.) and the UK Medical Research Council (G9901257; G9900369) and the German Volkswagen Foundation (VWF 1/79 783) (R.V.D. and R.D.P.).
N2 - Vocal-tract resonances (or formants) are acoustic signatures in the voice and are related to the shape and length of the vocal tract. Formants play an important role in human communication, helping us not only to distinguish several different speech sounds [1], but also to extract important information related to the physical characteristics of the speaker, so-called indexical cues. How did formants come to play such an important role in human vocal communication? One hypothesis suggests that the ancestral role of formant perception-a role that might be present in extant nonhuman primates-was to provide indexical cues [2-5]. Although formants are present in the acoustic structure of vowel-like calls of monkeys [3-8] and implicated in the discrimination of call types [8-10], it is not known whether they use this feature to extract indexical cues. Here, we investigate whether rhesus monkeys can use the formant structure in their "coo" calls to assess the age-related body size of conspecifics. Using a preferential-looking paradigm [11, 12] and synthetic coo calls in which formant structure simulated an adult/large- or juvenile/small-sounding individual, we demonstrate that untrained monkeys attend to formant cues and link large-sounding coos to large faces and small-sounding coos to small faces-in essence, they can, like humans [13], use formants as indicators of age-related body size.
AB - Vocal-tract resonances (or formants) are acoustic signatures in the voice and are related to the shape and length of the vocal tract. Formants play an important role in human communication, helping us not only to distinguish several different speech sounds [1], but also to extract important information related to the physical characteristics of the speaker, so-called indexical cues. How did formants come to play such an important role in human vocal communication? One hypothesis suggests that the ancestral role of formant perception-a role that might be present in extant nonhuman primates-was to provide indexical cues [2-5]. Although formants are present in the acoustic structure of vowel-like calls of monkeys [3-8] and implicated in the discrimination of call types [8-10], it is not known whether they use this feature to extract indexical cues. Here, we investigate whether rhesus monkeys can use the formant structure in their "coo" calls to assess the age-related body size of conspecifics. Using a preferential-looking paradigm [11, 12] and synthetic coo calls in which formant structure simulated an adult/large- or juvenile/small-sounding individual, we demonstrate that untrained monkeys attend to formant cues and link large-sounding coos to large faces and small-sounding coos to small faces-in essence, they can, like humans [13], use formants as indicators of age-related body size.
KW - SYSNEURO
U2 - 10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.029
DO - 10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.029
JO - Current Biology
JF - Current Biology
Ghazanfar AA, Turesson HK, Maier JX, van Dinther R, Patterson RD, Logothetis NK. Vocal-Tract Resonances as Indexical Cues in Rhesus Monkeys. Current Biology. 2007 Mar 6;17(5):425-430. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cub.2007.01.029