Cognitive Control of Distinct Vocalizations in Rhesus Monkeys

Whether nonhuman primates can decouple their innate vocalizations from accompanied levels of arousal or specific events in the environment to achieve cognitive control over their vocal utterances has been a matter of debate for decades. We show that rhesus monkeys can be trained to elicit different...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of cognitive neuroscience 2013-10, Vol.25 (10), p.1692-1701
Main Authors: Hage, Steffen R., Gavrilov, Natalja, Nieder, Andreas
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Acoustic Stimulation
Acoustics
Animal behavior
Animal cognition
Animal communication
Animals
Cognition - physiology
Cues
Discrimination (Psychology)
Macaca mulatta - physiology
Male
Mass Spectrometry
Monkeys & apes
Neuropsychological Tests
Photic Stimulation
Signal Detection, Psychological
Statistics as Topic
Vocalization, Animal - physiology
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Summary:Whether nonhuman primates can decouple their innate vocalizations from accompanied levels of arousal or specific events in the environment to achieve cognitive control over their vocal utterances has been a matter of debate for decades. We show that rhesus monkeys can be trained to elicit different call types on command in response to arbitrary visual cues. Furthermore, we report that a monkey learned to switch between two distinct call types from trial to trial in response to different visual cues. A controlled behavioral protocol and data analysis based on signal detection theory showed that noncognitive factors as a cause for the monkeys' vocalizations could be excluded. Our findings also suggest that monkeys also have rudimentary control over acoustic call parameters. These findings indicate that monkeys are able to volitionally initiate their vocal production and, therefore, are able to instrumentalize their vocal behavior to perform a behavioral task successfully.
ISSN:0898-929X
1530-8898
DOI:10.1162/jocn_a_00428