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Kleindorfer S, Brouwer L, Hauber ME, Teunissen N, Peters A, Louter M, Webster MS, Katsis AC, Sulloway FJ, Common LK, Austin VI, Colombelli-Négrel D. Nestling Begging Calls Resemble Maternal Vocal Signatures When Mothers Call Slowly to Embryos. Am Nat 2024; 203:267-283. [PMID: 38306283 DOI: 10.1086/728105] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 02/04/2024]
Abstract
AbstractVocal production learning (the capacity to learn to produce vocalizations) is a multidimensional trait that involves different learning mechanisms during different temporal and socioecological contexts. Key outstanding questions are whether vocal production learning begins during the embryonic stage and whether mothers play an active role in this through pupil-directed vocalization behaviors. We examined variation in vocal copy similarity (an indicator of learning) in eight species from the songbird family Maluridae, using comparative and experimental approaches. We found that (1) incubating females from all species vocalized inside the nest and produced call types including a signature "B element" that was structurally similar to their nestlings' begging call; (2) in a prenatal playback experiment using superb fairy wrens (Malurus cyaneus), embryos showed a stronger heart rate response to playbacks of the B element than to another call element (A); and (3) mothers that produced slower calls had offspring with greater similarity between their begging call and the mother's B element vocalization. We conclude that malurid mothers display behaviors concordant with pupil-directed vocalizations and may actively influence their offspring's early life through sound learning shaped by maternal call tempo.
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Sayigh LS, El Haddad N, Tyack PL, Janik VM, Wells RS, Jensen FH. Bottlenose dolphin mothers modify signature whistles in the presence of their own calves. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A 2023; 120:e2300262120. [PMID: 37364108 PMCID: PMC10318978 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2300262120] [Citation(s) in RCA: 4] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/05/2023] [Accepted: 05/09/2023] [Indexed: 06/28/2023] Open
Abstract
Human caregivers interacting with children typically modify their speech in ways that promote attention, bonding, and language acquisition. Although this "motherese," or child-directed communication (CDC), occurs in a variety of human cultures, evidence among nonhuman species is very rare. We looked for its occurrence in a nonhuman mammalian species with long-term mother-offspring bonds that is capable of vocal production learning, the bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus). Dolphin signature whistles provide a unique opportunity to test for CDC in nonhuman animals, because we are able to quantify changes in the same vocalizations produced in the presence or absence of calves. We analyzed recordings made during brief catch-and-release events of wild bottlenose dolphins in waters near Sarasota Bay, Florida, United States, and found that females produced signature whistles with significantly higher maximum frequencies and wider frequency ranges when they were recorded with their own dependent calves vs. not with them. These differences align with the higher fundamental frequencies and wider pitch ranges seen in human CDC. Our results provide evidence in a nonhuman mammal for changes in the same vocalizations when produced in the presence vs. absence of offspring, and thus strongly support convergent evolution of motherese, or CDC, in bottlenose dolphins. CDC may function to enhance attention, bonding, and vocal learning in dolphin calves, as it does in human children. Our data add to the growing body of evidence that dolphins provide a powerful animal model for studying the evolution of vocal learning and language.
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Affiliation(s)
- Laela S. Sayigh
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Falmouth, MA02543
- Hampshire College, Amherst, MA01002
| | - Nicole El Haddad
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Falmouth, MA02543
- Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, University of Milano Bicocca, Milano20126, Italy
| | - Peter L. Tyack
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Falmouth, MA02543
- Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 8LB, United Kingdom
| | - Vincent M. Janik
- Sea Mammal Research Unit, Scottish Oceans Institute, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, KY16 8LB, United Kingdom
| | - Randall S. Wells
- Chicago Zoological Society’s Sarasota Dolphin Research Program, c/o Mote Marine Laboratory, Sarasota, FL34236
| | - Frants H. Jensen
- Biology Department, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Falmouth, MA02543
- Marine Mammal Research, Department of Ecoscience, Aarhus University, Roskilde4000, Denmark
- Biology Department, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY13244
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Venditti JA, Murrugarra E, McLean CR, Goldstein MH. Curiosity constructs communicative competence through social feedback loops. ADVANCES IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT AND BEHAVIOR 2023; 65:99-134. [PMID: 37481302 DOI: 10.1016/bs.acdb.2023.05.007] [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: 07/24/2023]
Abstract
One of the most important challenges for a developing infant is learning how best to allocate their attention and forage for information in the midst of a great deal of novel stimulation. We propose that infants of altricial species solve this challenge by learning selectively from events that are contingent on their immature behavior, such as babbling. Such a contingency filter would focus attention and learning on the behavior of social partners, because social behavior reliably fits infants' sensitivity to contingency. In this way a contingent response by a caregiver to an immature behavior becomes a source of learnable information - feedback - to the infant. Social interactions with responsive caregivers afford infants opportunities to explore the impacts of their immature behavior on their environment, which facilitates the development of socially guided learning. Furthermore, contingent interactions are opportunities to make and test predictions about the efficacy of their social behaviors and those of others. In this chapter, we will use prelinguistic vocal learning to exemplify how infants use their developing vocal abilities to elicit learnable information about language from their social partners. Specifically, we review how caregivers' contingent responses to babbling create information that facilitates infant vocal learning and drives the development of communication. Infants play an active role in this process, as their developing predictions about the consequences of their actions serve to further refine their allocation of attention and drive increases in the maturity of their vocal behavior.
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Affiliation(s)
- Julia A Venditti
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, 270 Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY, United States
| | - Emma Murrugarra
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, 270 Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY, United States
| | - Celia R McLean
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, 270 Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY, United States
| | - Michael H Goldstein
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, 270 Uris Hall, Ithaca, NY, United States.
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Tuncali I, Sorial N, Torr K, Pereira M. Positive maternal affect during mother-litter interaction is reduced in new mother rats exhibiting a depression-like phenotype. Sci Rep 2023; 13:6552. [PMID: 37085648 PMCID: PMC10121587 DOI: 10.1038/s41598-023-33035-z] [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: 12/31/2022] [Accepted: 04/06/2023] [Indexed: 04/23/2023] Open
Abstract
The experience of positive affect during new motherhood is considered essential for a healthy mother-infant relationship, with life-long consequences for both mother and child. Affective availability and contingent responsiveness are often compromised in mothers experiencing postpartum depression, yet how maternal affect impacts parenting is not fully understood. In this study, we used the Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rat model of depression and ultrasonic vocalizations to examine the relationship between maternal affect and parenting. We examined the affective and behavioral response of WKY and control new mother rats during social interactions with their offspring. Our results show that WKY mothers displayed altered USV signaling accompanying substantial disturbances in their maternal caregiving. In addition, WKY mothers failed to adjust vocal frequency in coordination with offspring proximity and interaction compared to control mothers. A follow up experiment demonstrated that the administration of the adenosine A2A receptor antagonist MSX-3 ameliorated both maternal behavioral deficits and low positive affect in WKY mothers. Together, our results highlight the importance of maternal positive affect in the dyad relationship and suggest a role for the striatopallidal pathway in the affective processing of parenting.
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Affiliation(s)
- Idil Tuncali
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA
- APDA Center for Advanced Parkinson Research and Precision Neurology Program, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, 02115, USA
| | - Natalie Sorial
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA
| | - Kali Torr
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA
| | - Mariana Pereira
- Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, Amherst, MA, 01003, USA.
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Bergmann A, Burchardt LS, Wimmer B, Kugelschafter K, Gloza‐Rausch F, Knörnschild M. The soundscape of swarming: Proof of concept for a noninvasive acoustic species identification of swarming Myotis bats. Ecol Evol 2022; 12:e9439. [PMID: 36398197 PMCID: PMC9663320 DOI: 10.1002/ece3.9439] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2022] [Revised: 09/07/2022] [Accepted: 09/27/2022] [Indexed: 11/16/2022] Open
Abstract
Bats emit echolocation calls to orientate in their predominantly dark environment. Recording of species-specific calls can facilitate species identification, especially when mist netting is not feasible. However, some taxa, such as Myotis bats can be hard to distinguish acoustically. In crowded situations where calls of many individuals overlap, the subtle differences between species are additionally attenuated. Here, we sought to noninvasively study the phenology of Myotis bats during autumn swarming at a prominent hibernaculum. To do so, we recorded sequences of overlapping echolocation calls (N = 564) during nights of high swarming activity and extracted spectral parameters (peak frequency, start frequency, spectral centroid) and linear frequency cepstral coefficients (LFCCs), which additionally encompass the timbre (vocal "color") of calls. We used this parameter combination in a stepwise discriminant function analysis (DFA) to classify the call sequences to species level. A set of previously identified call sequences of single flying Myotis daubentonii and Myotis nattereri, the most common species at our study site, functioned as a training set for the DFA. 90.2% of the call sequences could be assigned to either M. daubentonii or M. nattereri, indicating the predominantly swarming species at the time of recording. We verified our results by correctly classifying the second set of previously identified call sequences with an accuracy of 100%. In addition, our acoustic species classification corresponds well to the existing knowledge on swarming phenology at the hibernaculum. Moreover, we successfully classified call sequences from a different hibernaculum to species level and verified our classification results by capturing swarming bats while we recorded them. Our findings provide a proof of concept for a new noninvasive acoustic monitoring technique that analyses "swarming soundscapes" by combining classical acoustic parameters and LFCCs, instead of analyzing single calls. Our approach for species identification is especially beneficial in situations with multiple calling individuals, such as autumn swarming.
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Affiliation(s)
- Anja Bergmann
- Museum für NaturkundeLeibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity ScienceBerlinGermany
- Animal Behavior Lab, Freie Universität BerlinBerlinGermany
| | - Lara S. Burchardt
- Museum für NaturkundeLeibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity ScienceBerlinGermany
- Animal Behavior Lab, Freie Universität BerlinBerlinGermany
| | - Bernadette Wimmer
- Naturschutz, Landwirtschaft, Gartenbau, Schifffahrt und WasserwirtschaftLandratsamt Garmisch‐PatenkirchenGarmisch‐PatenkirchenGermany
| | | | - Florian Gloza‐Rausch
- Museum für NaturkundeLeibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity ScienceBerlinGermany
- Noctalis Fledermaus‐Zentrum GmbHBad SegebergGermany
- Deutsche Fledermauswarte e.VBerlinGermany
| | - Mirjam Knörnschild
- Museum für NaturkundeLeibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity ScienceBerlinGermany
- Animal Behavior Lab, Freie Universität BerlinBerlinGermany
- Deutsche Fledermauswarte e.VBerlinGermany
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6
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Schick J, Fryns C, Wegdell F, Laporte M, Zuberbühler K, van Schaik CP, Townsend SW, Stoll S. The function and evolution of child-directed communication. PLoS Biol 2022; 20:e3001630. [PMID: 35522717 PMCID: PMC9116647 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pbio.3001630] [Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 3.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Revised: 05/18/2022] [Indexed: 11/20/2022] Open
Abstract
Humans communicate with small children in unusual and highly conspicuous ways (child-directed communication (CDC)), which enhance social bonding and facilitate language acquisition. CDC-like inputs are also reported for some vocally learning animals, suggesting similar functions in facilitating communicative competence. However, adult great apes, our closest living relatives, rarely signal to their infants, implicating communication surrounding the infant as the main input for infant great apes and early humans. Given cross-cultural variation in the amount and structure of CDC, we suggest that child-surrounding communication (CSC) provides essential compensatory input when CDC is less prevalent-a paramount topic for future studies.
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Affiliation(s)
- Johanna Schick
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Caroline Fryns
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Cognition, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
| | - Franziska Wegdell
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Marion Laporte
- Histoire naturelle de l’Homme préhistorique, UMR 7194, PaleoFED, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Paris, France
- Institut des Sciences du Calcul et des Données, Sorbonne Université, Paris, France
| | - Klaus Zuberbühler
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Comparative Cognition, University of Neuchatel, Neuchatel, Switzerland
- School of Psychology and Neuroscience, University of St. Andrews, St. Andrews, United Kingdom
| | - Carel P. van Schaik
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Anthropology, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Evolutionary Biology and Environmental Studies, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
| | - Simon W. Townsend
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Department of Psychology, University of Warwick, Warwick, United Kingdom
| | - Sabine Stoll
- Department of Comparative Language Science, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
- Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Language Evolution (ISLE), University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland
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7
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Faust KM, Carouso-Peck S, Elson MR, Goldstein MH. The Origins of Social Knowledge in Altricial Species. ANNUAL REVIEW OF DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY 2021; 2:225-246. [PMID: 34553142 DOI: 10.1146/annurev-devpsych-051820-121446] [Citation(s) in RCA: 12] [Impact Index Per Article: 4.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022]
Abstract
Human infants are altricial, born relatively helpless and dependent on parental care for an extended period of time. This protracted time to maturity is typically regarded as a necessary epiphenomenon of evolving and developing large brains. We argue that extended altriciality is itself adaptive, as a prolonged necessity for parental care allows extensive social learning to take place. Human adults possess a suite of complex social skills, such as language, empathy, morality, and theory of mind. Rather than requiring hardwired, innate knowledge of social abilities, evolution has outsourced the necessary information to parents. Critical information for species-typical development, such as species recognition, may originate from adults rather than from genes, aided by underlying perceptual biases for attending to social stimuli and capacities for statistical learning of social actions. We draw on extensive comparative findings to illustrate that, across species, altriciality functions as an adaptation for social learning from caregivers.
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Affiliation(s)
- Katerina M Faust
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
| | | | - Mary R Elson
- Department of Psychology, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
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8
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Fernandez AA, Burchardt LS, Nagy M, Knörnschild M. Babbling in a vocal learning bat resembles human infant babbling. Science 2021; 373:923-926. [PMID: 34413237 DOI: 10.1126/science.abf9279] [Citation(s) in RCA: 22] [Impact Index Per Article: 7.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/29/2020] [Accepted: 07/13/2021] [Indexed: 11/02/2022]
Abstract
Babbling is a production milestone in infant speech development. Evidence for babbling in nonhuman mammals is scarce, which has prevented cross-species comparisons. In this study, we investigated the conspicuous babbling behavior of Saccopteryx bilineata, a bat capable of vocal production learning. We analyzed the babbling of 20 bat pups in the field during their 3-month ontogeny and compared its features to those that characterize babbling in human infants. Our findings demonstrate that babbling in bat pups is characterized by the same eight features as babbling in human infants, including the conspicuous features reduplication and rhythmicity. These parallels in vocal ontogeny between two mammalian species offer future possibilities for comparison of cognitive and neuromolecular mechanisms and adaptive functions of babbling in bats and humans.
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Affiliation(s)
- Ahana A Fernandez
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany.,Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, Institute of Biology, Animal Behavior Lab, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustrasse 6, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Lara S Burchardt
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany.,Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, Institute of Biology, Animal Behavior Lab, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustrasse 6, 14195 Berlin, Germany
| | - Martina Nagy
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany
| | - Mirjam Knörnschild
- Museum für Naturkunde, Leibniz Institute for Evolution and Biodiversity Science, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany.,Department of Biology, Chemistry, and Pharmacy, Institute of Biology, Animal Behavior Lab, Freie Universität Berlin, Takustrasse 6, 14195 Berlin, Germany.,Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Luis Clement Avenue, Bldg. 401 Tupper, Balboa Ancon, Republic of Panama
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