Rhesus Monkeys Use Vocal-Tract Resonances to Identify Body Size
Author Information
Author(s): Ghazanfar Asif A., Turesson Hjalmar K., Maier Joost X., van Dinther Ralph, Patterson Roy D., Logothetis Nikos K.
Primary Institution: Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics
Hypothesis
Do rhesus monkeys use formant structure in their calls to assess the age-related body size of conspecifics?
Conclusion
Rhesus monkeys can use formant structure in their calls to determine the body size of other monkeys.
Supporting Evidence
- Monkeys looked at the matching screen for 58.4% of the total time, significantly above chance.
- Nineteen out of twenty-four monkeys preferentially attended to the dynamic face that matched the body size simulated by the coo vocalization.
- The study demonstrates that formants in monkey calls can provide cues about the physical characteristics of the vocalizer.
Takeaway
Rhesus monkeys can tell how big another monkey is just by listening to its calls, similar to how humans can.
Methodology
The study used a preferential-looking paradigm with synthetic coo calls to test monkeys' responses to different vocalizations.
Limitations
The study only tested male rhesus monkeys and may not generalize to other populations.
Participant Demographics
Male rhesus macaques aged 4 to 14 years.
Statistical Information
P-Value
0.014
Statistical Significance
p<0.05
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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