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Surprise: Baby marmosets learning to 'talk' do listen to adults

Date:
August 13, 2015
Source:
American Association for the Advancement of Science
Summary:
As nonhuman primates mature, their vocalizations are thought to be minimally or not at all influenced by caregivers -- but a new study reveals that infant marmosets use cues from adults as they develop vocalizations.
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As nonhuman primates mature, their vocalizations are thought to be minimally or not at all influenced by caregivers -- but a new study reveals that infant marmosets use cues from adults as they develop vocalizations. In a surprise twist then, humans may not be the only primates whose vocal development benefits from early communication.

To monitor and measure the vocal development in marmosets, Daniel Takahashi et al. recorded vocalizations between the first day of birth and two months of age, using four well-established acoustic parameters. Recordings were taken during social isolation, as well as during auditory (but not visual) interactions with parents. Adults emit distinct, whistle-like "phees," but infants emit immature sounds such as cries, phee cries, and subharmonic phees.

The team sought to determine whether physical maturation or learning from caregivers was the key mechanism behind the transition from immature phees to the sophisticated phees heard in adults. Using a model and validating it by measuring respiratory activity, the team determined that the transition is at least partly caused by more stable respiration as the marmosets physically mature.

However, by analyzing the ratio of growth to changes in acoustics across the set of infants, they found that physiological growth does not completely explain the cries-to-phees transition. The team then investigated whether parental responses to infant vocalizations affect the timing of the cries-to-phees transition and found a strong correlation, suggesting that the development of marmoset vocalization is dependent on parental vocal feedback.

A Perspective by Daniel Margoliash and Ofer Tchernichovski provides further insights into the role of learned vocalization, both in marmosets and across other species.


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Materials provided by American Association for the Advancement of Science. Note: Content may be edited for style and length.


Journal Reference:

  1. D. Y. Takahashi, A. R. Fenley, Y. Teramoto, D. Z. Narayanan, J. I. Borjon, P. Holmes, A. A. Ghazanfar. The developmental dynamics of marmoset monkey vocal production. Science, 2015; 349 (6249): 734 DOI: 10.1126/science.aab1058

Cite This Page:

American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Surprise: Baby marmosets learning to 'talk' do listen to adults." ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 August 2015. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150813142541.htm>.
American Association for the Advancement of Science. (2015, August 13). Surprise: Baby marmosets learning to 'talk' do listen to adults. ScienceDaily. Retrieved March 28, 2024 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150813142541.htm
American Association for the Advancement of Science. "Surprise: Baby marmosets learning to 'talk' do listen to adults." ScienceDaily. www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/08/150813142541.htm (accessed March 28, 2024).

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