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Assaneo MF, Orpella J. Rhythms in Speech. ADVANCES IN EXPERIMENTAL MEDICINE AND BIOLOGY 2024; 1455:257-274. [PMID: 38918356 DOI: 10.1007/978-3-031-60183-5_14] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 06/27/2024]
Abstract
Speech can be defined as the human ability to communicate through a sequence of vocal sounds. Consequently, speech requires an emitter (the speaker) capable of generating the acoustic signal and a receiver (the listener) able to successfully decode the sounds produced by the emitter (i.e., the acoustic signal). Time plays a central role at both ends of this interaction. On the one hand, speech production requires precise and rapid coordination, typically within the order of milliseconds, of the upper vocal tract articulators (i.e., tongue, jaw, lips, and velum), their composite movements, and the activation of the vocal folds. On the other hand, the generated acoustic signal unfolds in time, carrying information at different timescales. This information must be parsed and integrated by the receiver for the correct transmission of meaning. This chapter describes the temporal patterns that characterize the speech signal and reviews research that explores the neural mechanisms underlying the generation of these patterns and the role they play in speech comprehension.
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Affiliation(s)
- M Florencia Assaneo
- Instituto de Neurobiología, Universidad Autónoma de México, Santiago de Querétaro, Mexico.
| | - Joan Orpella
- Department of Neuroscience, Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, DC, USA
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2
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Gannon C, Hill RA, Lameira AR. Open plains are not a level playing field for hominid consonant-like versus vowel-like calls. Sci Rep 2023; 13:21138. [PMID: 38129443 PMCID: PMC10739746 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-48165-7] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/27/2023] [Accepted: 11/22/2023] [Indexed: 12/23/2023] Open
Abstract
Africa's paleo-climate change represents an "ecological black-box" along the evolutionary timeline of spoken language; a vocal hominid went in and, millions of years later, out came a verbal human. It is unknown whether or how a shift from forested, dense habitats towards drier, open ones affected hominid vocal communication, potentially setting stage for speech evolution. To recreate how arboreal proto-vowels and proto-consonants would have interacted with a new ecology at ground level, we assessed how a series of orangutan voiceless consonant-like and voiced vowel-like calls travelled across the savannah. Vowel-like calls performed poorly in comparison to their counterparts. Only consonant-like calls afforded effective perceptibility beyond 100 m distance without requiring repetition, as is characteristic of loud calling behaviour in nonhuman primates, typically composed by vowel-like calls. Results show that proto-consonants in human ancestors may have enhanced reliability of distance vocal communication across a canopy-to-ground ecotone. The ecological settings and soundscapes experienced by human ancestors may have had a more profound impact on the emergence and shape of spoken language than previously recognized.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Russell A Hill
- Department of Anthropology, Durham University, Durham, UK
- Primate and Predator Project, Soutpansberg Mountains, Thohoyandou, South Africa
- Department of Biological Sciences, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa
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3
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Benítez-Burraco A, Nikolsky A. The (Co)Evolution of Language and Music Under Human Self-Domestication. HUMAN NATURE (HAWTHORNE, N.Y.) 2023; 34:229-275. [PMID: 37097428 PMCID: PMC10354115 DOI: 10.1007/s12110-023-09447-1] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 03/27/2023] [Indexed: 04/26/2023]
Abstract
Together with language, music is perhaps the most distinctive behavioral trait of the human species. Different hypotheses have been proposed to explain why only humans perform music and how this ability might have evolved in our species. In this paper, we advance a new model of music evolution that builds on the self-domestication view of human evolution, according to which the human phenotype is, at least in part, the outcome of a process similar to domestication in other mammals, triggered by the reduction in reactive aggression responses to environmental changes. We specifically argue that self-domestication can account for some of the cognitive changes, and particularly for the behaviors conducive to the complexification of music through a cultural mechanism. We hypothesize four stages in the evolution of music under self-domestication forces: (1) collective protomusic; (2) private, timbre-oriented music; (3) small-group, pitch-oriented music; and (4) collective, tonally organized music. This line of development encompasses the worldwide diversity of music types and genres and parallels what has been hypothesized for languages. Overall, music diversity might have emerged in a gradual fashion under the effects of the enhanced cultural niche construction as shaped by the progressive decrease in reactive (i.e., impulsive, triggered by fear or anger) aggression and the increase in proactive (i.e., premeditated, goal-directed) aggression.
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Affiliation(s)
- Antonio Benítez-Burraco
- Department of Spanish Language, Linguistics and Literary Theory (Linguistics), Faculty of Philology, University of Seville, Seville, Spain.
- Departamento de Lengua Española, Facultad de Filología, Área de Lingüística General, Lingüística y Teoría de la Literatura, Universidad de Sevilla, C/ Palos de la Frontera s/n, Sevilla, 41007, España.
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Lameira AR, Moran S. Life of p: A consonant older than speech. Bioessays 2023; 45:e2200246. [PMID: 36811380 DOI: 10.1002/bies.202200246] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/19/2022] [Revised: 02/06/2023] [Accepted: 02/07/2023] [Indexed: 02/24/2023]
Abstract
Which sounds composed the first spoken languages? Archetypal sounds are not phylogenetically or archeologically recoverable, but comparative linguistics and primatology provide an alternative approach. Labial articulations are the most common speech sound, being virtually universal across the world's languages. Of all labials, the plosive 'p' sound, as in 'Pablo Picasso', transcribed /p/, is the most predominant voiceless sound globally and one of the first sounds to emerge in human infant canonical babbling. Global omnipresence and ontogenetic precocity imply that /p/-like sounds could predate the first major linguistic diversification event(s) in humans. Indeed, great ape vocal data support this view, namely, the only cultural sound shared across all great ape genera is articulatorily homologous to a rolling or trilled /p/, the 'raspberry'. /p/-like labial sounds represent an 'articulatory attractor' among living hominids and are likely among the oldest phonological features to have ever emerged in linguistic systems.
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Affiliation(s)
| | - Steven Moran
- Department of Anthropology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, Florida, USA
- Institute of Biology, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
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Lameira AR, Santamaría-Bonfil G, Galeone D, Gamba M, Hardus ME, Knott CD, Morrogh-Bernard H, Nowak MG, Campbell-Smith G, Wich SA. Sociality predicts orangutan vocal phenotype. Nat Ecol Evol 2022; 6:644-652. [PMID: 35314786 PMCID: PMC9085614 DOI: 10.1038/s41559-022-01689-z] [Citation(s) in RCA: 8] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/13/2021] [Accepted: 02/02/2022] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
In humans, individuals' social setting determines which and how language is acquired. Social seclusion experiments show that sociality also guides vocal development in songbirds and marmoset monkeys, but absence of similar great ape data has been interpreted as support to saltational notions for language origin, even if such laboratorial protocols are unethical with great apes. Here we characterize the repertoire entropy of orangutan individuals and show that in the wild, different degrees of sociality across populations are associated with different 'vocal personalities' in the form of distinct regimes of alarm call variants. In high-density populations, individuals are vocally more original and acoustically unpredictable but new call variants are short lived, whereas individuals in low-density populations are more conformative and acoustically consistent but also exhibit more complex call repertoires. Findings provide non-invasive evidence that sociality predicts vocal phenotype in a wild great ape. They prove false hypotheses that discredit great apes as having hardwired vocal development programmes and non-plastic vocal behaviour. Social settings mould vocal output in hominids besides humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Adriano R Lameira
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Coventry, UK.
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, UK.
| | - Guillermo Santamaría-Bonfil
- Instituto Nacional de Electricidad y Energías Limpias, Gerencia de Tecnologías de la Información, Cuernavaca, México
| | - Deborah Galeone
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Turin, Italy
| | - Marco Gamba
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino, Turin, Italy
| | | | - Cheryl D Knott
- Department of Anthropology, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Helen Morrogh-Bernard
- Borneo Nature Foundation, Palangka Raya, Indonesia
- College of Life and Environmental Sciences, University of Exeter, Penryn, UK
| | - Matthew G Nowak
- The PanEco Foundation-Sumatran Orangutan Conservation Programme, Berg am Irchel, Switzerland
- Department of Anthropology, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA
| | - Gail Campbell-Smith
- Yayasan Inisiasi Alam Rehabilitasi Indonesia, International Animal Rescue, Ketapang, Indonesia
| | - Serge A Wich
- School of Natural Sciences and Psychology, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK
- Faculty of Science, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands
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Michon M, Zamorano-Abramson J, Aboitiz F. Faces and Voices Processing in Human and Primate Brains: Rhythmic and Multimodal Mechanisms Underlying the Evolution and Development of Speech. Front Psychol 2022; 13:829083. [PMID: 35432052 PMCID: PMC9007199 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.829083] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/04/2021] [Accepted: 03/07/2022] [Indexed: 11/24/2022] Open
Abstract
While influential works since the 1970s have widely assumed that imitation is an innate skill in both human and non-human primate neonates, recent empirical studies and meta-analyses have challenged this view, indicating other forms of reward-based learning as relevant factors in the development of social behavior. The visual input translation into matching motor output that underlies imitation abilities instead seems to develop along with social interactions and sensorimotor experience during infancy and childhood. Recently, a new visual stream has been identified in both human and non-human primate brains, updating the dual visual stream model. This third pathway is thought to be specialized for dynamics aspects of social perceptions such as eye-gaze, facial expression and crucially for audio-visual integration of speech. Here, we review empirical studies addressing an understudied but crucial aspect of speech and communication, namely the processing of visual orofacial cues (i.e., the perception of a speaker's lips and tongue movements) and its integration with vocal auditory cues. Along this review, we offer new insights from our understanding of speech as the product of evolution and development of a rhythmic and multimodal organization of sensorimotor brain networks, supporting volitional motor control of the upper vocal tract and audio-visual voices-faces integration.
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Affiliation(s)
- Maëva Michon
- Laboratory for Cognitive and Evolutionary Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
- Centro de Estudios en Neurociencia Humana y Neuropsicología, Facultad de Psicología, Universidad Diego Portales, Santiago, Chile
| | - José Zamorano-Abramson
- Centro de Investigación en Complejidad Social, Facultad de Gobierno, Universidad del Desarrollo, Santiago, Chile
| | - Francisco Aboitiz
- Laboratory for Cognitive and Evolutionary Neuroscience, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Center for Neuroscience, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
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Liebal K, Slocombe KE, Waller BM. The language void 10 years on: multimodal primate communication research is still uncommon. ETHOL ECOL EVOL 2022. [DOI: 10.1080/03949370.2021.2015453] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 10/19/2022]
Affiliation(s)
- Katja Liebal
- Life Sciences, Institute of Biology, Leipzig University, Talstrasse 33, Leipzig 04103, Germany
| | | | - Bridget M. Waller
- School of Social Sciences, Nottingham Trent University, Shakespeare Street, Nottingham NG1 4FQ, UK
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Pouw W, Proksch S, Drijvers L, Gamba M, Holler J, Kello C, Schaefer RS, Wiggins GA. Multilevel rhythms in multimodal communication. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2021; 376:20200334. [PMID: 34420378 PMCID: PMC8380971 DOI: 10.1098/rstb.2020.0334] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Accepted: 04/05/2021] [Indexed: 12/16/2022] Open
Abstract
It is now widely accepted that the brunt of animal communication is conducted via several modalities, e.g. acoustic and visual, either simultaneously or sequentially. This is a laudable multimodal turn relative to traditional accounts of temporal aspects of animal communication which have focused on a single modality at a time. However, the fields that are currently contributing to the study of multimodal communication are highly varied, and still largely disconnected given their sole focus on a particular level of description or their particular concern with human or non-human animals. Here, we provide an integrative overview of converging findings that show how multimodal processes occurring at neural, bodily, as well as social interactional levels each contribute uniquely to the complex rhythms that characterize communication in human and non-human animals. Though we address findings for each of these levels independently, we conclude that the most important challenge in this field is to identify how processes at these different levels connect. This article is part of the theme issue 'Synchrony and rhythm interaction: from the brain to behavioural ecology'.
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Affiliation(s)
- Wim Pouw
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Shannon Proksch
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Linda Drijvers
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Marco Gamba
- Department of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Turin, Turin, Italy
| | - Judith Holler
- Donders Institute for Brain, Cognition and Behaviour, Radboud University, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
- Max Planck Institute for Psycholinguistics, Nijmegen, The Netherlands
| | - Christopher Kello
- Cognitive and Information Sciences, University of California, Merced, CA, USA
| | - Rebecca S. Schaefer
- Health, Medical and Neuropsychology unit, Institute for Psychology, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
- Academy for Creative and Performing Arts, Leiden University, Leiden, The Netherlands
| | - Geraint A. Wiggins
- Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium and Queen Mary University of London, UK
- Queen Mary University, London, UK
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Locke JL. The Indexical Voice: Communication of Personal States and Traits in Humans and Other Primates. Front Psychol 2021; 12:651108. [PMID: 33935911 PMCID: PMC8084177 DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2021.651108] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.7] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/08/2021] [Accepted: 02/24/2021] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Many studies of primate vocalization have been undertaken to improve our understanding of the evolution of language. Perhaps, for this reason, investigators have focused on calls that were thought to carry symbolic information about the environment. Here I suggest that even if these calls were in fact symbolic, there were independent reasons to question this approach in the first place. I begin by asking what kind of communication system would satisfy a species' biological needs. For example, where animals benefit from living in large groups, I ask how members would need to communicate to keep their groups from fragmenting. In this context, I discuss the role of social grooming and "close calls," including lip-smacking and grunting. Parallels exist in human societies, where information is exchanged about all kinds of things, often less about the nominal topic than the communicants themselves. This sort of indexical (or personal) information is vital to group living, which presupposes the ability to tolerate, relate to, and interact constructively with other individuals. Making indexical communication the focus of comparative research encourages consideration of somatic and behavioral cues that facilitate relationships and social benefits, including cooperation and collaboration. There is ample room here for a different and potentially more fruitful approach to communication in humans and other primates, one that focuses on personal appraisals, based on cues originating with individuals, rather than signals excited by environmental events.
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Affiliation(s)
- John L Locke
- Lehman College, City University of New York, New York, NY, United Sates
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Risueno-Segovia C, Hage SR. Theta Synchronization of Phonatory and Articulatory Systems in Marmoset Monkey Vocal Production. Curr Biol 2020; 30:4276-4283.e3. [PMID: 32888481 DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2020.08.019] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Revised: 07/20/2020] [Accepted: 08/05/2020] [Indexed: 11/27/2022]
Abstract
Human speech shares a 3-8-Hz theta rhythm across all languages [1-3]. According to the frame/content theory of speech evolution, this rhythm corresponds to syllabic rates derived from natural mandibular-associated oscillations [4]. The underlying pattern originates from oscillatory movements of articulatory muscles [4, 5] tightly linked to periodic vocal fold vibrations [4, 6, 7]. Such phono-articulatory rhythms have been proposed as one of the crucial preadaptations for human speech evolution [3, 8, 9]. However, the evolutionary link in phono-articulatory rhythmicity between vertebrate vocalization and human speech remains unclear. From the phonatory perspective, theta oscillations might be phylogenetically preserved throughout all vertebrate clades [10-12]. From the articulatory perspective, theta oscillations are present in non-vocal lip smacking [1, 13, 14], teeth chattering [15], vocal lip smacking [16], and clicks and faux-speech [17] in non-human primates, potential evolutionary precursors for speech rhythmicity [1, 13]. Notably, a universal phono-articulatory rhythmicity similar to that in human speech is considered to be absent in non-human primate vocalizations, typically produced with sound modulations lacking concomitant articulatory movements [1, 9, 18]. Here, we challenge this view by investigating the coupling of phonatory and articulatory systems in marmoset vocalizations. Using quantitative measures of acoustic call structure, e.g., amplitude envelope, and call-associated articulatory movements, i.e., inter-lip distance, we show that marmosets display speech-like bi-motor rhythmicity. These oscillations are synchronized and phase locked at theta rhythms. Our findings suggest that oscillatory rhythms underlying speech production evolved early in the primate lineage, identifying marmosets as a suitable animal model to decipher the evolutionary and neural basis of coupled phono-articulatory movements.
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Affiliation(s)
- Cristina Risueno-Segovia
- Neurobiology of Social Communication, Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Hearing Research Centre, University of Tübingen Medical Center, Elfriede-Aulhorn-Str. 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller-Str. 25, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Graduate School of Neural & Behavioural Sciences - International Max Planck Research School, University of Tübingen, Österberg-Str. 3, 72074 Tübingen, Germany
| | - Steffen R Hage
- Neurobiology of Social Communication, Department of Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery, Hearing Research Centre, University of Tübingen Medical Center, Elfriede-Aulhorn-Str. 5, 72076 Tübingen, Germany; Werner Reichardt Centre for Integrative Neuroscience, University of Tübingen, Otfried-Müller-Str. 25, 72076 Tübingen, Germany.
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