Singing behavior via reduced predation risk

Schruth, David M.; Jordania, Joseph

doi:10.31234/osf.io/u9m8z

Cited by 5 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…In humans, increased levels of hunting vs. other modes of subsistence was positively associated with rhythmic tension, perhaps for predator intimidation. Contrary to the credible coalition quality signaling hypothesis, however, Schruth & Jordania (2020) appear to conclude that group auditory performances involve deceptive, rather than credible, signals of group size:…”

Section: Coalition Quality Signals and Predator Deterrencecontrasting

confidence: 72%

The biological roots of music and dance: Extending the credible signaling hypothesis to predator deterrence

Hagen¹

2022

Preprint

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After their divergence from chimpanzees, hominins evolved an increasingly committed terrestrial lifestyle that exposed them to increased predation pressure from Africa’s formidable predator guild. In the Pleistocene, Homo transitioned to a more carnivorous lifestyle that would have further increased predation pressure. An effective defense against predators would have required a high degree of cooperation by the smaller and slower hominins. It is in the interest of predator and potential prey to avoid encounters that will be costly for both. A wide variety of species, including carnivores and apes and other primates, have therefore evolved visual and auditory signals that deter predators by credibly signaling detection and/or the ability to effectively defend themselves. In some cooperative species, these predator deterrent signals involve highly synchronized visual and auditory displays among group members. Hagen & Bryant (2003) proposed that synchronized visual and auditory displays credibly signal coalition quality. Here, this hypothesis is extended to include credible signals to predators that they have been detected and would be met with a highly coordinated defensive response, thereby deterring an attack. Within-group signaling functions are also proposed. The evolved cognitive abilities underlying these behaviors were foundations for the evolution of fully human music and dance.

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Section: Coalition Quality Signals and Predator Deterrencecontrasting

confidence: 72%

The biological roots of music and dance: Extending the credible signaling hypothesis to predator deterrence

Hagen¹

2022

Preprint

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“…fighting ability) (Zahavi & Zahavi 1997) providing for offspring via both menage and range defense as well as dietary scouting or provisioning (can include infant carrying) evolutionary or developmental means (e.g. infant carrying) of successful deterrence or avoidance of predation within a given food web (Schruth & Jordania 2020) long-term mutual benefit between breeding partners or long-term neighbors where spatialboundaries are respected in order to avoid physical collisions and falls (e.g. within tree) or resource shortages and conflicts (e.g.…”

Section: Music Musicality and Feature Component Evolutionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Features of PIANO also could have applied to more nomadic hunter-gatherers or pastoralists who also needed to orient to repositioning of nearby tribes-ever-shifting acoustic landmarks on the nomadic ancestral plain. A more postural application of ME could be hammering for stone toolmaking (Schruth, et al, 2020). Even more intricate tool crafting, such as those that don't fossilize or last millions of years, could also have comprised the underlying trait bolstering such signaling via musicality.…”

Section: Terrestrial Ecologymentioning

confidence: 99%

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Neuroecological selection for musical features through spatial reciprocity in long-term partnerships

Schruth¹

2022

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Chemical sensing via olfaction constitutes a most ancient form of inter-organism communication. But acoustical signaling via tonal and rhythmic patterning is also common among higher vertebrates. Animals that live in well ventilated habitats and move in diasporic ways have further evolved more spectrally varied and discretized call structure. But unlike song in birds, researchers have struggled to locate isolated nucleii specialized for music cognition. The brain stem, midbrain, hindbrain, and forebrain, however, all largely associate with aspects of musical performance, perception, memory, and emotion. I hypothesized that spectral features of musical display evolved as honest signals of spatial cognition for precarious locomotor tasks associated with nurturing and protecting vulnerable offspring. I investigated possible connections between motor, visual, and spatial cognitive areas in relation to both signaler production and receiver processing of acoustical features of musical output. Brain component volume fractions of 42 parts from 48 primates were compiled, from a single source, and compared against a vocal complexity index (ARDI) as well as individual musical feature scores: including tone, interval, repetition, transposition rhythm, and unique syllable count. Structures for spatial and visual perception as well as motor control and emotional processing associated moderately with areas used by species who produce calls with both temporal and spectral musical features. These findings are consistent with a dual (both receiver- and signaler- side) function of musical signals. Associations with spatio-social areas (e.g. schizocortex and insula) support direct selection for a paralimbic-based neighbor orienting [PIANO] sensory modality for mapping and anticipating movement of fellow arboreal cohabitants. Associations with motor areas (e.g. LGN, mid-brain, and thalamus) support the complementary model that signaler capacities for spatio-motive emplacement [ME] are indirectly selected by conspecific receivers. This dual manifestation in low-parity species that locomote in diasporic ways through (arboreally) diffuse habitats, is compatible with musicality serving as courtship signals by long-term mates with consistent and reliable spatial capacities directly relevant to care of vulnerable (arboreal) offspring.

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“…This mode of signaling avoids venturing onto the forest floor or using diffused chemical, visually occluded, or otherwise ineffectual signals (Slater, 2000). In summary, we propose that arboreal primates, intent on avoiding terrestrial predation (Schruth and Jordania, 2020), frequently became at least moderately airborne in order to traverse gaps in substrate-and that the selection for corresponding (e.g. ocular) motor control and spatial cognition (e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Evolution of primate protomusicality via locomotion

Schruth

Templeton

Holman

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Animals communicate acoustically to report location and identity to conspecifics. More complex patterning of calls can also function as displays to potential mates and as territorial advertisement. Music and song are terms often reserved only for humans and birds, but elements of both forms of acoustic display are also found in non-human primates. While theories on proximate functions abound, ultimate drivers of specific call structures are less well understood. We hypothesized that spatio-temporal precision in landing during perilous arboreal locomotion favored the evolution of musical calling in early primates—vastly preceding the origin of more music-like behavior in hominoids and subsequent emergence of music in later hominids. We test this locomotion-based hypothesis on the origins of proto-musicality using spectrographic depictions of vocal repertoires of modern day primates and corresponding estimates of locomotor activity. Phylogenetically controlled regression analysis of 54 primate species reveals that arboreal locomotion and monogamy are robust influences on complex calling patterns while controlling for other socioecological variables. Given that these findings rest primarily upon a handful of deep branching points in the primate tree, we conclude that this coevolution likely occurred very slowly, occupying on the order of tens of millions of years.LicenseAttribution-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-ND 4.0)

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Singing behavior via reduced predation risk

Cited by 5 publications

References 24 publications

The biological roots of music and dance: Extending the credible signaling hypothesis to predator deterrence

The biological roots of music and dance: Extending the credible signaling hypothesis to predator deterrence

Neuroecological selection for musical features through spatial reciprocity in long-term partnerships

Evolution of primate protomusicality via locomotion

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