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这和一个同伴项目（Z01 HD001123-14）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、内分泌因素和社会环境等方面全面了解灵长类动物的听觉交流。松鼠猴和普通狨猴这两个物种是研究的主要对象，并在适当情况下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，重点研究自然环境下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，以及社会环境和遗传背景等更广泛的因素。新发现：1)研究了一种远距离亲缘性发声，即隔离声（IP）对物种特异性声学细节差异的响应性。对2种松鼠猴（sammiri sciureus和S. boliviensis）的Peeps进行了数字化处理，并将其输入文库作为回放刺激。研究人员测量了每种叫声的8个声学参数，并将这些参数输入判别函数分析，以确定给定的叫声是否代表了一种或另一种物种叫声的弱、典型或极端变体。共选择152个呼叫作为回放刺激。选取4个社会群体，2个物种各2个群体作为研究对象。受试者在户外跑步中进行测试，每一阶段有12个刺激试验和4个对照组（无刺激）试验。会议每天进行。在所有四组中，对于来自同一物种还是其他物种的刺激，反应没有显著差异。然而，总的来说，所有组中，67%的刺激试验产生了IP反应，而只有17.5%的对照试验产生了IP反应（p<0.01，卡方检验）。这些完整群体对分离叫声的反应表明，这种灵长类动物存在利他主义或共情发声行为。没有发现刺激信号的声学细节影响声音反应。未来的工作将试图解决潜在的机制，似乎赋予不同的感官偏见的两个密切相关的物种研究。一个很少被研究的声学参数——呼叫间隔——被用来对人类婴儿和两种非人类灵长类动物——恒河猴和普通狨猴的婴儿的哭声进行比较研究。研究人员分析了每个物种30秒的哭声片段，并测量了呼气哭声之间的间隔。对于人类，研究人员检查了4个受试者组中每组的3种哭声：低风险早产儿；高风险、早产;低风险,fullterm;高风险、fullterm。使用Kolmogorov-Smirnov检验（K-S检验），除低危和高危早产外，4组的所有两两检验的间隔分布均有显著差异。对于恒河猴，对照组是母亲抚养的婴儿和托儿所抚养的婴儿。在这些组之间的分布间隔中发现了显著差异，但仅适用于男性。将对两组中更多的个体进行分析，以确定这一发现是否一致。对于狨猴，比较了幼龄（1个月以下）和老年（2或3个月）。这两个年龄组婴儿哭声的间隔分布存在显著差异。这些结果表明，哭泣的时间模式可能是评估哭泣个体发展或经验状态的重要参数。

This and a companion project (Z01 HD001123-14) 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: 1) A long-distance affiliative vocalization, the isolation peep (IP), 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 152 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. In all 4 groups, there was no significant difference in responding depending on whether the stimulus was from the same or the other species. Nevertheless, overall all groups, 67% of the stimulus trials had an IP response,while only 17.5% of the control trials had an IP response (p<0.01, Chi-square test). These responses from intact groups to separation calls suggests the existence of atruistic or empathic vocal behavior in this primate. The acoustic details of the stimulus signal were not found to influence the vocal response. Future work will attempt to resolve the underlying mechanism that appears to impart different sensory biases to the 2 closely-related species under study. 2) A little-examined acoustic parameter--intercall interval-- was employed in a comparative study of the cry sounds of human infants and the infants of 2 non-human primates, the rhesus macaque and the common marmoset. For each species, a 30-second segment of crying was analyzed, with the interval between expiratory cry sounds measured. For humans, 3 cries from each of 4 subject groups were examined: low-risk, preterm; high-risk, preterm; low-risk, fullterm; high-risk, fullterm. Using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test (K-S test), significant differences were found in the distribution of intervals for all pair-wise tests of the 4 groups, except for low-risk and high-risk preterms. For the rhesus macaques, the comparison groups were mother-reared infants and nursery-reared infants. Significant differences were found in the distribution intervals between these groups, but only for males. More individuals of both groups will be analyzed to determine whether this is a consistent finding. For the marmosets, the comparison was made between young ages (under 1 month) and older ages (2 or 3 months of age). Significant differences were found in the distribution of intervals in the cries of infants from these 2 age groups. These results suggest that the temporal patterning of crying may be an important parameter for evaluating the developmental or experiential status of a crying individual.