Monkey vocal tracts are speech-ready.
Monkey vocal tracts are speech-ready.
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DOI：
10.1126/sciadv.1600723
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发表时间：
2016-12
期刊：
影响因子：
13.6
通讯作者：
Ghazanfar AA
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Fitch WT;de Boer B;Mathur N;Ghazanfar AA
对猕猴声道运动的X射线分析表明，猴子不能说话并不是因为周围解剖结构的限制。40年来，非人类灵长类动物无法发出人类的语音一直被认为是由于其声道解剖学的局限性，这一结论是基于从猴子尸体声道制成的石膏模型。我们使用x射线视频来量化活体猕猴在发声、面部展示和进食过程中的声道动力学。我们证明，猕猴声道可以很容易地产生足够的语音范围，以支持口语，表明以前的技术的基础上尸检样本大大低估了灵长类动物的发声能力。我们的研究结果表明，人类语言能力的进化需要神经的变化，而不是修改声乐解剖。猕猴有一个准备好说话的声道，但缺乏准备好说话的大脑来控制它。
X-ray analyses of macaque vocal tract movements show that monkeys’ inability to speak is not due to limitations of peripheral anatomy. For four decades, the inability of nonhuman primates to produce human speech sounds has been claimed to stem from limitations in their vocal tract anatomy, a conclusion based on plaster casts made from the vocal tract of a monkey cadaver. We used x-ray videos to quantify vocal tract dynamics in living macaques during vocalization, facial displays, and feeding. We demonstrate that the macaque vocal tract could easily produce an adequate range of speech sounds to support spoken language, showing that previous techniques based on postmortem samples drastically underestimated primate vocal capabilities. Our findings imply that the evolution of human speech capabilities required neural changes rather than modifications of vocal anatomy. Macaques have a speech-ready vocal tract but lack a speech-ready brain to control it.