Genetic And Experiential Influences On The Development O

这和一个同伴项目（Z 01 HD 001123 -12）研究灵长类动物的听觉交流。这些研究的总体目标是从发育、神经机制、内分泌因素和社会背景等方面全面了解灵长类动物的听觉交流。松鼠猴和普通绒猴这两个物种是研究的主要对象，并酌情从其他物种收集额外数据。本项目从生物声学和行为学的角度研究灵长类动物的交流，重点是在自然环境中产生的发声的详细声学结构，以及结构差异与年龄，性别，经验和反应选择性差异的关系，以及社会背景和遗传背景等更广泛的因素。新的发现集中在听觉交流的感知方面，使用回放技术来检查感知偏好，通过声音对刺激的反应来测量。一个近距离的附属发声主要由成年雌性松鼠猴，卡盘，进行了测试的响应的基础上熟悉的声音（由于个别发声者的卡盘的声学细节）的听众。从测试组记录的卡盘被数字化，然后要么完整地呈现，被称为“标志”的调频组件被移除，要么将另一个人（来自另一个社会群体）的标志电子拼接到卡盘上，而不是自然发生的标志。完整的卡盘的反应显着超过相同的卡盘与国旗删除，或卡盘与陌生的旗帜拼接到他们。这些结果表明，旗帜是一个重要的声学特征，用于确定女性是否口头回应这种形式的对话交流。 为了测试标志中的声学信息是否足以在统计上区分发声者，几个标志参数（如标志持续时间、峰值频率等）被设置为用于区分发声者。测量并将值输入判别分析。结果表明，标志参数本身就足以分离出一个社会群体中的发声者的卡盘。

This and a companion project (Z01 HD001123-12) investigate auditory communication in primates. The overall goal of these studies is to provide a comprehensive understanding of primate auditory communication in terms of development, neural mechanisms, endocrine factors, and social context. Two species, the squirrel monkey and the common marmoset, are the main subjects of study, with additional data collected from other species where appropriate. The present project studies primate communication from a bioacoustic and ethological perspective, focusing on the detailed acoustic structure of vocalizations produced in natural settings, and the relationship of structural differences to differences in age, gender, experience and response selectivity, as well as the broader factors of social context and genetic background. New findings focused on the perceptual side of auditory communication, using playback techniques to examine perceptual preferences as measured by vocally responding to the stimulus. A close-range affiliative vocalization given mainly by adult female squirrel monkeys, the chuck, was tested for responsiveness based on the familiarity of the sound (due to the acoustic details of the chucks of individual vocalizers) to the listener. Chucks recorded from the test group were digitized, then either presented intact, with a frequency-modulated component referred to as a 'flag' removed, or with the flag of another individual (from another social group) electronically spliced onto a chuck instead of the naturally occurring flag for that vocalization. Intact chucks were responded to significantly more than the same chuck with the flag removed, or to chucks with unfamiliar flags spliced onto them. These results suggest that the flag is an important acoustic feature used by females to determine whether they vocally respond to this form of conversational communication. To test whether the acoustic information in flags was sufficient to statistically separate vocalizers, several flag parameters (such as flag duration, peak frequency, etc.) were measured and the values entered into a discriminant analysis. The results indicated that flag parameters alone were sufficient to separate the chucks of vocalizers in a social group.