Cetacean vocal learning and communication

Janik, Vincent M.

doi:10.1016/j.conb.2014.06.010

Cited by 165 publications

(131 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

127

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Besides humans, vocal production learning has been found in songbirds, parrots, cetaceans, bats and a few other lineages46525556. From our current knowledge, such vocal pattern learning mechanisms do not seem to exist in non-human primates, that is, they appear to lack the ability to learn or imitate new vocal signals294457.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Limiting parental feedback disrupts vocal development in marmoset monkeys

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Vocalizations of human infants undergo dramatic changes across the first year by becoming increasingly mature and speech-like. Human vocal development is partially dependent on learning by imitation through social feedback between infants and caregivers. Recent studies revealed similar developmental processes being influenced by parental feedback in marmoset monkeys for apparently innate vocalizations. Marmosets produce infant-specific vocalizations that disappear after the first postnatal months. However, it is yet unclear whether parental feedback is an obligate requirement for proper vocal development. Using quantitative measures to compare call parameters and vocal sequence structure we show that, in contrast to normally raised marmosets, marmosets that were separated from parents after the third postnatal month still produced infant-specific vocal behaviour at subadult stages. These findings suggest a significant role of social feedback on primate vocal development until the subadult stages and further show that marmoset monkeys are a compelling model system for early human vocal development.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Limiting parental feedback disrupts vocal development in marmoset monkeys

2017

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…In mammals vocal learning is rare, and cetaceans are one of the few mammalian groups that are capable of it (Janik & Slater, 1997;Janik, 2014). Social learning of acoustic signals may lead to complex welldeveloped vocal traditions changing with time through cultural evolution (Rendell & Whitehead, 2001).…”

Section: Who Defined Culture As "Information Capable Of Affecting Indmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Filatova

Samarra

Deecke

et al. 2015

Behav

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cultural evolution is a powerful process shaping behavioural phenotypes of many species including our own. Killer whales are one of the species with relatively well-studied vocal culture. Pods have distinct dialects comprising a mix of unique and shared call types; calves adopt the call repertoire of their matriline through social learning. We review different aspects of killer whale acoustic communication to provide insights into the cultural transmission and gene-culture co-evolution processes that produce the extreme diversity of group and population repertoires. We argue that the cultural evolution of killer whale calls is not a random process driven by steady error accumulation alone: temporal change occurs at different speeds in different components of killer whale repertoires, and constraints in call structure and horizontal transmission often degrade the phylogenetic signal. We discuss the implications from bird song and human linguistic studies, and propose several hypotheses of killer whale dialect evolution.

show abstract

“…First, the recent finding that song production by females is widespread in oscine songbirds and that singing by both sexes likely represents the ancestral state in this group calls into question the common assumption that song has always been central to mate choice and, in turn, undermines the hypothesis that sexual selection is primarily responsible for the evolution of song learning (Odom et al, 2014). Second, vocal learning of less elaborate vocal signals, often termed ‘calls’, occurs in diverse taxa including parrots, whales, seals, elephants, bats and primates, and many of these taxa lack elaborate songs altogether but share a propensity to form highly social groups (Bradbury, 2003; Janik, 2014; Janik & Slater, 1997; Knörnschild, 2014; Petkov & Jarvis, 2012; Reichmuth & Casey, 2014; Stoeger & Manger, 2014; Tyack, 2008; Watson et al, 2015; Toft & Wright, 2015). These observations have led some to propose the alternative hypothesis that learned communication in animals, including humans, has evolved as a means of better mediating complex and dynamic social interactions, rather than via sexual selection driven by mate choice (Fitch et al, 2010; Freeberg et al, 2012; Janik, 2014; Pinker, 2010; Sewall, 2015; Seyfarth & Cheney, 2014; Tyack, 2008; but see Burling, 2007; Fitch, 2005; Miller, 2000; Puts et al, 2007).…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Social calls provide novel insights into the evolution of vocal learning

2016

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Learned song is among the best-studied models of animal communication. In oscine songbirds, where learned song is most prevalent, it is used primarily for intrasexual selection and mate attraction. Learning of a different class of vocal signals, known as contact calls, is found in a diverse array of species, where they are used to mediate social interactions among individuals. We argue that call learning provides a taxonomically rich system for studying testable hypotheses for the evolutionary origins of vocal learning. We describe and critically evaluate four nonmutually exclusive hypotheses for the origin and current function of vocal learning of calls, which propose that call learning (1) improves auditory detection and recognition, (2) signals local knowledge, (3) signals group membership, or (4) allows for the encoding of more complex social information. We propose approaches to testing these four hypotheses but emphasize that all of them share the idea that social living, not sexual selection, is a central driver of vocal learning. Finally, we identify future areas for research on call learning that could provide new perspectives on the origins and mechanisms of vocal learning in both animals and humans.

show abstract

Cetacean vocal learning and communication

Cited by 165 publications

References 56 publications

Limiting parental feedback disrupts vocal development in marmoset monkeys

Limiting parental feedback disrupts vocal development in marmoset monkeys

Cultural evolution of killer whale calls: background, mechanisms and consequences

Social calls provide novel insights into the evolution of vocal learning

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About