Vocal and locomotor coordination develops in association with the autonomic nervous system

In adult animals, movement and vocalizations are coordinated, sometimes facilitating, and at other times inhibiting, each other. What is missing is how these different domains of motor control become coordinated over the course of development. We investigated how postural-locomotor behaviors may inf...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:eLife 2019-07, Vol.8
Main Authors: Gustison, Morgan L, Borjon, Jeremy I, Takahashi, Daniel Y, Ghazanfar, Asif A
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Age groups
Animal behavior
Animals
Arousal
Auditory Perception
Autonomic nervous system
Autonomic Nervous System - physiology
Babies
Callithrix
Cerebral Cortex - physiology
Electrocardiography
energetics
Female
Heart Rate
Infants
locomotion
Male
marmoset monkey
motor development
Motor task performance
Movement
Nervous system
Neuroscience
Physiological aspects
Physiological research
Posture
Psychomotor Performance
vocal ontogeny
Vocalization, Animal
Voice
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Summary:In adult animals, movement and vocalizations are coordinated, sometimes facilitating, and at other times inhibiting, each other. What is missing is how these different domains of motor control become coordinated over the course of development. We investigated how postural-locomotor behaviors may influence vocal development, and the role played by physiological arousal during their interactions. Using infant marmoset monkeys, we densely sampled vocal, postural and locomotor behaviors and estimated arousal fluctuations from electrocardiographic measures of heart rate. We found that vocalizations matured sooner than postural and locomotor skills, and that vocal-locomotor coordination improved with age and during elevated arousal levels. These results suggest that postural-locomotor maturity is not required for vocal development to occur, and that infants gradually improve coordination between vocalizations and body movement through a process that may be facilitated by arousal level changes.
ISSN:2050-084X
2050-084X
DOI:10.7554/eLife.41853