{"id":2049,"date":"2022-05-26T10:43:53","date_gmt":"2022-05-26T10:43:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=2049"},"modified":"2022-05-26T10:43:53","modified_gmt":"2022-05-26T10:43:53","slug":"listening-to-the-reason-of-voice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2049\/listening-to-the-reason-of-voice\/","title":{"rendered":"Listening to the reason of voice"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Speech and language skills are unique to modern humans. While this ability evolved over millions of years, it is not possible to trace language in the fossil record because it leaves no direct imprint. Instead, re-examining the ways our nearest living relatives communicate is helping to unravel this mysterious capability.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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The mystery is deepened by the fact that our closest living relatives, the great apes, do not talk. Some scientists now believe that the evolution of our language capabilities are more discernible in living primates than previously assumed.<\/p>\n

\u2018The traditional view is that, even though great apes are our closest living relatives, they are not useful for studying how language and speech came about, because their vocal behaviour is so different,\u2019 said primatologist Dr Adriano Lameira at the University of Warwick, UK. \u2018It\u2019s automatic and reflexive, guided by blind instinct.\u2019<\/p>\n

During his years spent in jungles studying orangutans in the wild, Lameria discovered that the range and novelty of vocal sounds in wild orangutans varies, and he recently reported that this depends on local population density. Novelty is at a premium when an individual needs to stand out, so that apes living in areas of high population density express their individuality through more distinctive and variable vocal sounds.<\/p>\n

Tiger sheets<\/strong><\/p>\n

In Indonesia, Lameira experimented by crawling around the forest floor on all fours, disguised with a tiger-patterned sheet. Recording the responses of the forest apes, he discovered that orangutan mums holding an infant stay silent when they spot \u201ca tiger,\u201d which stayed within sight for two minutes. They suppress alert calls for up to 20 minutes after the tiger has gone.<\/p>\n

From there, he reasoned that immediate vocalisation could endanger the young orangutan. \u2018A Sumatran tiger can climb 10 metres up a tree in a second,\u2019 said Lameira. \u2018If you advertise your location, especially if you have an infant, it could be very dangerous.\u2019<\/p>\n

By vocalising after the tiger has moved on, the mother alerts the infant to the danger. This helps the juvenile to make the correct association. The remarkable thing about this is that the orangutan was communicating about a past event, rather than something in the here and now. \u2018This was completely outside the box of what we had been thinking,\u2019 said Lameira.<\/p>\n

It opens up the possibility that orangutans communicate about past events, or perhaps even future events. If this ability exists, the possibilities for sharing information are endless. \u2018This could well be a trait that was shared by our last common ancestor \u2013 this capacity of communicating about events that are not in the here and now.\u2019<\/p>\n

It may be that other apes are also able to do this to some degree. \u2018Even if you communicate only about 20 minutes in the past, or future, you can accrue benefits,\u2019 said Lameira. \u2018Natural selection just needs a little bit of something to tinker with and improve upon.\u2019 Perhaps apes can communicate that a certain tree has such-and-such fruit, though this suggestion remains speculative.<\/p>\n

Monkey talk\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the south of France, Dr Pascal Belin studies captive macaque and marmoset monkeys to investigate their perception of vocalisations.<\/p>\n

\u2018The goal of the research is to better understand the way the human brain evolved,\u2019 said Belin, a neuroscientist at the Aix-Marseille University in France. \u2018We study humans and three other types of primates \u2013 marmosets, macaques and baboons \u2013 to try to better understand differences and similarities, especially in vocal communications.\u2019<\/p>\n

In one experiment, three macaques were trained to stay still in an MRI machine, which scanned their brains as they listened to dozens of sounds, including vocalisations from other macaques.<\/p>\n

\u2018Like in the human brain, the macaques and marmosets seem to have regions that are particularly sensitive to conspecific (from the same species) vocalisations,\u2019 said Belin. The MRI scans show which areas become active as the macaques listen to other macaques, but not natural or other sounds or marmosets. A very similar area is active when humans listen to human voices.<\/p>\n

If the same area of the brain in macaques and humans lights up when they hear another member of their species, this points to this voice area having evolved before they diverged in the evolutionary tree.<\/p>\n

Belin\u2019s hypothesis is that the voice information processing part of the primate brain is quite similar and therefore evolved in a common ancestor, before ancient humans such as Homo erectus emerged in Africa 2-3 million years ago.<\/p>\n

\u2018It would suggest that the last common ancestor of humans and macaques already had a precursor of this voice area in the brain 20 million years ago,\u2019 said Belin.<\/p>\n

Future experiments are planned to use surgically implanted electrodes in the monkeys to try to distinguish exactly which neurons become active when the macaques hear another macaque, but not other monkeys or other sounds or noises.<\/p>\n

It may even be possible to then compare results from marmosets and macaques to humans, fitted with these electrodes for medical reasons. These are implanted in some epileptic patients, who don\u2019t respond to treatments, to allow neurosurgeons to better see small areas of the brain that they may need to remove.<\/p>\n

Such patients could be asked to listen to the same 96 sounds as the marmosets and macaques while being monitored in hospital, to study the brain\u2019s response.<\/p>\n

Consonant contacts<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yet it is not only the similarities that are interesting, but differences too. Great apes can make vowel-like sounds, as do monkeys, with their voice box. Yet only great apes and humans seem to make consonant-like sounds, which rely less on the vocal tract and more on the lips.<\/p>\n

Orangutans have a rich repertoire of lip-smacking clicks and raspberries, which they combine with grunts and other vowel-like sounds. \u2018They combine voiced calls with voiceless calls, so like vowel-like with consonant-like sounds,\u2019 said Lameira. \u2018We think there is something quite unique about this marriage between two distinct types of call, so powerful that every language was built on this formula of consonant plus vowel.\u2019<\/p>\n

This repertoire comprised critical starter blocks for our ancestors to begin developing what we today would recognise as human speech and language, Lameira suspects. Such shared traits, in Lameira\u2019s view, is one way to trace back the path of human speech and language evolution and understand key steps forward that our ancestors took in terms of vocalisations and brain evolution.<\/p>\n

He calls on scientists studying gorillas, bonobos and chimpanzees to similarly look for shared traits, such as combinations of some consonant-like and vowel-like sounds, or evidence of communications about recent past events. By investigating our primate relatives, we may uncover vestiges of ancestral humans and the origins of our speech and language of today.<\/p>\n

Research in this article was funded by the EU\u2019s European Research Council. If you liked this article, please consider sharing it on social media.<\/h5>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Speech and language skills are unique to modern humans. While this ability evolved over millions of years, it is not possible to trace language in the fossil record because it leaves no direct imprint. Instead, re-examining the ways our nearest living relatives communicate is helping to unravel this mysterious capability.   The mystery is deepened … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":298,"featured_media":2050,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"generate_page_header":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2049","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-earth-energy-environment","category-life-non-humans"],"yoast_head":"\nListening to the reason of voice - Horizon Magazine Blog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2049\/listening-to-the-reason-of-voice\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Listening to the reason of voice\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Speech and language skills are unique to modern humans. 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But human language is one\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Health"","block_context":{"text":"Health","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/health\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/chimps-3707292_1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/chimps-3707292_1920.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/chimps-3707292_1920.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/chimps-3707292_1920.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/chimps-3707292_1920.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/08\/chimps-3707292_1920.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":421,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/421\/genetic-error-led-humans-to-evolve-bigger-but-more-vulnerable-brains\/","url_meta":{"origin":2049,"position":1},"title":"Genetic error led humans to evolve bigger, but more vulnerable, brains","author":"Anthony King","date":"August 21, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Newly-discovered genes that helped supersize human brains along with DNA retrieved from extinct humans, which can still be found in people living today, are expanding scientists\u2019 understanding of how our species evolved. One of the major features that distinguish humans from other primates is the size of our brains, which\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brain & Behavior"","block_context":{"text":"Brain & Behavior","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/brain-behavior\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The skull of a Australopithecus sediba, a species of Australopithecines, who were our ancestors and whose brains started to grow two to three million years ago. Image credit - Australopithecus sediba by Brett Eloff, courtesy Profberger and Wits University is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/08\/Australopithecus_crop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/08\/Australopithecus_crop.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/08\/Australopithecus_crop.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/08\/Australopithecus_crop.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/08\/Australopithecus_crop.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2018\/08\/Australopithecus_crop.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2439,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/2439\/animal-heredity-sheds-light-on-survival-and-extinction-risks\/","url_meta":{"origin":2049,"position":2},"title":"Animal heredity sheds light on survival and extinction risks","author":"Horizon Magazine","date":"July 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"As biodiversity declines and causes reductions in the genetic variation of animals, historic genomes offer clues for conservation. By\u00a0\u00a0MICHAEL ALLEN As recently as the early 1800s, thousands of Seychelles paradise flycatcher birds lived on at least five islands off the southeast coast of Africa. By the 1960s, just 28 of\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Earth, Energy & Environment"","block_context":{"text":"Earth, Energy & Environment","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/earth-energy-environment\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/26.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/26.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/26.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2023\/07\/26.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":899,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/899\/link-between-music-and-speech-rhythm-in-brain-could-provide-language-insight\/","url_meta":{"origin":2049,"position":3},"title":"Link between music and speech rhythm in brain could provide language insight","author":"Sandrine Ceurstemont","date":"July 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Neuroscientist Dr Domenica Bueti often plays an altered version of the classic aria\u00a0La donna \u00e8 mobile\u00a0when she gives talks about the importance of time perception. Her friend\u2019s piano rendition of Giuseppe Verdi\u2019s composition uses the same notes but is played at different speeds. Rarely does anyone ever identify the tune.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brain & Behavior"","block_context":{"text":"Brain & Behavior","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/brain-behavior\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"When a piece of music is played at the wrong tempo it is difficult to recognise because our brain uses rhythm to help make sense of sounds. Image credit - flickr\/ Brian Richardson, licensed under CC BY 2.0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/07\/4148739768_0336167f0a_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/07\/4148739768_0336167f0a_o.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/07\/4148739768_0336167f0a_o.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/07\/4148739768_0336167f0a_o.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/07\/4148739768_0336167f0a_o.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/07\/4148739768_0336167f0a_o.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":617,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/617\/the-internet-is-helping-to-revive-minority-languages\/","url_meta":{"origin":2049,"position":4},"title":"The internet is helping to revive minority languages","author":"Aisling Irwin","date":"January 3, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Europe\u2019s minority languages have been squeezed by nation-building, urbanisation and the\u00a0\u2018lingua francas\u2019 of the internet, according to\u00a0Professor Anneli Sarhimaa, specialist in Northern European and Baltic languages and cultures at the University of Mainz, Germany. But one lesson she has learned from researching the fate of the Finnic language Karelian, spoken\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Social Sciences"","block_context":{"text":"Social Sciences","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/social-sciences\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image credit - CC0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/friends-talking.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":622,"url":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/622\/noise-and-motion-links-to-dyslexia-pave-way-for-early-diagnosis\/","url_meta":{"origin":2049,"position":5},"title":"Noise and motion links to dyslexia pave way for early diagnosis","author":"Sandrine Ceurstemont","date":"January 8, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Most children are able to learn language almost effortlessly. But for those with communication disorders such as dyslexia, mastering their native tongue can be a challenge. Researchers are exploring how links with noise, language and motion could help diagnose problems earlier and pave the way for better treatment. Dyslexia is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Brain & Behavior"","block_context":{"text":"Brain & Behavior","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/category\/brain-behavior\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Image credit - Jay Inslee, CC BY-ND 2.0","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2019\/01\/readingkids.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/298"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2049"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2049\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2050"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2049"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2049"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2049"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}