Vocal fold control beyond the species-specific repertoire in an orang-utan

Vocal fold control was critical to the evolution of spoken language, much as it today allows us to learn vowel systems. It has, however, never been demonstrated directly in a non-human primate, leading to the suggestion that it evolved in the human lineage after divergence from great apes. Here, we...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Scientific reports 2016-07, Vol.6 (1), p.30315-30315, Article 30315
Main Authors: Lameira, Adriano R., Hardus, Madeleine E., Mielke, Alexander, Wich, Serge A., Shumaker, Robert W.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
631/181/19/2471
631/181/2468
631/378/2632/1663
631/601/18
Animals
Biological Evolution
Humanities and Social Sciences
multidisciplinary
Pongo - genetics
Pongo - physiology
Science
Science (multidisciplinary)
Vocal Cords - physiology
Vocalization, Animal
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Summary:Vocal fold control was critical to the evolution of spoken language, much as it today allows us to learn vowel systems. It has, however, never been demonstrated directly in a non-human primate, leading to the suggestion that it evolved in the human lineage after divergence from great apes. Here, we provide the first evidence for real-time, dynamic and interactive vocal fold control in a great ape during an imitation “do-as-I-do” game with a human demonstrator. Notably, the orang-utan subject skilfully produced “wookies” – an idiosyncratic vocalization exhibiting a unique spectral profile among the orang-utan vocal repertoire. The subject instantaneously matched human-produced wookies as they were randomly modulated in pitch, adjusting his voice frequency up or down when the human demonstrator did so, readily generating distinct low vs. high frequency sub-variants. These sub-variants were significantly different from spontaneous ones (not produced in matching trials). Results indicate a latent capacity for vocal fold exercise in a great ape ( i ) in real-time, ( ii ) up and down the frequency spectrum, ( iii ) across a register range beyond the species-repertoire and, ( iv ) in a co-operative turn-taking social setup. Such ancestral capacity likely provided the neuro-behavioural basis of the more fine-tuned vocal fold control that is a human hallmark.
ISSN:2045-2322
2045-2322
DOI:10.1038/srep30315