Genetic & Experiential Influences On Vocal Development

这项研究和另一个项目(Z01 HD001123-13)研究了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听觉交流。两个物种，松鼠猴和普通的绒猴，是主要的研究对象，并在适当的时候从其他物种收集额外的数据。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，侧重于自然环境中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知觉方面，使用回放技术来检查通过声音对刺激的反应来衡量的知觉偏好。一种长距离的联系发声，孤立的PEEP，被测试了对声学细节中物种特定差异的反应。将两种松鼠猴(Saimiri cerureus和S.boliviens)的分离Peep数字化，然后进入图书馆作为回放刺激。每个叫声的8个声学参数被测量，这些参数进入判别函数分析，以确定给定的叫声代表一个或另一个物种的叫声的弱、典型或极端变体。共有432个电话被选为回放刺激。选择4个社会群体作为研究对象，每2个物种2个群体。受试者在户外跑步中接受测试，每节课有12次刺激试验和4次对照(无刺激)试验。会议每天都在进行。到目前为止，4组中的3组已经进行了测试。这两组松材线虫对两个物种都有回放刺激，因此没有表现出物种选择性。然而，如果反应措施是从群体成员中分离出对声隔离的声音，那么从统计上讲，波利维亚族确实表现出更大的发声响应自己物种的呼唤的倾向。未来的工作将试图解决潜在的机制，似乎赋予了两个密切相关的物种在研究中的不同的感觉偏见。

This and a companion project (Z01 HD001123-13) 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 long-distance affiliative vocalization, the isolation peep, was tested for responsiveness to species-specific differences in the acoustic details. Isolation Peeps from 2 species of squirrel monkey (Saimiri sciureus and S. boliviensis) were digitized, then entered into a library for use as playback stimuli. Eight acoustic parameters of each call were measured, and these parameters entered into a discriminant function analysis to determine whether a given call represented a weak, typical or extreme variant of one or the other species' calls. A total of 432 calls were selected as playback stimuli. Four social groups, 2 groups of each of the 2 species, were chosen as subjects. Subjects were tested in an outdoor run and were presented with 12 stimulus trials and 4 control (no stimulus) trials per session. Sessions were run daily. Three of the 4 groups have been tested, to date. The two groups of S. sciureus called to playback stimuli of both species, hence did not show species selectivity. However, the group of S. boliviensis did show a statistically significantly greater tendency to vocally respond to their own species' calls, if the response measure was antiphonal isolation peeps from group members. Future work will attempt to resolve the underlying mechanism that appears to impart different sensory biases to the 2 closely-related species under study.