Habitat acoustics and primate communication

Waser, Peter M.; Brown, Charles H.

doi:10.1002/ajp.1350100205

Cited by 215 publications

(206 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Brown and Waser (1984) found that a heightened sensitivity of around 10 dB in the low-frequency range of blue monkeys (Cercopithecus mitis) results in a four-fold increase in the audible distance of their low-frequency boom calls. The average difference in platyrrhine and lorisoid hearing between 250 and 1,000 Hz is 14.6 dB, suggesting that New World monkeys have the potential to benefit from a considerable increase in the audible distance of long calls, although the exact propagation distances are related to particular aspects of different environments (Waser and Brown, 1986). This study reveals that reshaping the outer ears may be one way that anthropoids have increased their low-frequency hearing sensitivity.…”

Section: Morphological Effects On Primate Hearingmentioning

confidence: 84%

Primate auditory diversity and its influence on hearing performance

2004

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The auditory region contains numerous structures that have proven useful for phylogenetic classification at various taxonomic levels. However, little work has been done in primates relating differences in morphology to variations in hearing performance. This study documents anatomical and physiological distinctions within primates and begins to address the functional and evolutionary consequences of these and other auditory features. The dimensions of the outer ear (pinna) were measured in cadaveric specimens representing nearly every primate family and used to calculate a shape ratio (height/width). It was found that nonanthropoids have a significantly higher ratio than anthropoids, although the actual height was not found to differ. This indicates that most nonanthropoids have ears that are tall and narrow, whereas monkeys and apes are characterized by ears with more equal height and width dimensions. Eardrum area, stapedial footplate area, and ossicular lever arm lengths were measured in dried specimens to calculate an impedance transformer ratio. A distinction was found between anthropoids and strepsirrhines, with the latter group having a transformer ratio indicative of a higher percentage of acoustic energy transmission through the middle ear. Audiogram data were gathered from the literature to analyze hearing sensitivity and it was found that platyrrhines illustrate more low-frequency sensitivity than like-sized lorisoids. The effects of intraspecific variation on the audiogram results were also examined and were found to produce similar results as the analysis using species mean threshold values. Lastly, correlations between morphological and audiogram variables were examined. Several measures of hearing sensitivity were found to be correlated with pinna shape but correlations with middle ear transmission properties were weaker. In addition to using traditional statistical techniques, phylogenetic corrective methods were applied to address the problem of statistical nonindependence of the data and the results of both analyses are compared. These findings are discussed with respect to how sensory adaptations and phylogenetic history may be related to the current radiation of primates. Key words: primate hearing; outer ears; middle ears; audiogram; phylogenyPrimates express numerous modifications on the fundamental mammalian middle ear morphology and these differences have proven useful for phylogenetic classification at various taxonomic levels (MacPhee and Cartmill, 1986). Among extant strepsirrhines, most Malagasy primates are characterized by a free-floating tympanic ring surrounded by a single relatively large tympanic cavity while lorisoids have a tympanic ring that is fused to the lateral wall of a smaller tympanic cavity. Lorises appear to maintain a substantial effective cavity volume by having additional pneumatic spaces off of the epitympanic recess. Extant haplorhines are similar to lorises in possessing epitympanic sinuses (except tarsiers) (MacPhee and Cartmill, 1986) and a fused tym...

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Section: Morphological Effects On Primate Hearingmentioning

confidence: 84%

Primate auditory diversity and its influence on hearing performance

2004

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“…A crucial effect of background sounds on the evolution of frequency traits of animal vocalizations has been suggested for birds and primates (Wiley and Richards, 1982;Ryan and Brenowitz, 1985;Waser and Brown, 1986). Blue monkeys Cercopithecus mitis and pygmy marmosets Cebuella pygmaea produce calls with dominant frequencies coinciding with typical low-amplitude regions in the environmental noise spectra of their habitats, which may be the result of an evolutionary shaping of call phonetics to minimise masking by background noise (Brown and Waser, 1984;de la Torre and Snowdon, 2002).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Acoustic communication in noise: regulation of call characteristics in a New World monkey

Brumm

Voß

Köllmer

et al. 2004

Journal of Experimental Biology

308

208

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This study on common marmosets Callithrix jacchus is the first to examine noise-dependent mechanisms of vocal plasticity in a New World monkey. Since acoustic communication can be considerably impaired by environmental noise, some animals have evolved adaptations to counteract its masking effects. The studied marmosets increased the sound level of their spontaneous calls in response to increased levels of white noise broadcast to them. Possibly, such noise-dependent adjustment of vocal amplitude serves to maintain a specific signal-to-noise ratio that is favourable for signal production. Concurrently, the adjustment of vocal amplitude can maintain a given active space for communication. In contrast to some bird species, no noiseinduced increase in the number of syllables per call series could be found, showing that an increased serial redundancy of vocal signals was not used to communicate under noisy conditions. Finally, we examined a possible noise-dependent prolongation of vocal signals. This approach was guided by the findings of perceptional studies, which suggest an increased detection probability of prolonged signals in noise by temporal summation. Marmosets indeed increased the duration of their call syllables along with increasing background noise levels. This is the first evidence of such mechanism of vocal plasticity in an animal communication system.

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“…Successful communication, however, is ultimately dependent upon a balance between an individual's impetus to communicate and the variety of constraints that limit its occurrence. The external environment, for example, may impede both the timing and structure of a signal (Marten et al, 1977;Waser and Brown, 1986;Egnor et al, 2007) whereas the animal itself may be restricted by limitations on its ability to control signal production (Cynx, 1990;Miller et al, 2003;Miller et al, 2009a). In vocal communication systems, a key limitation is the acoustic environment itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Vocal control by the common marmoset in the presence of interfering noise

Roy

Miller

Gottsch

et al. 2011

Journal of Experimental Biology

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SUMMARYThe natural environment is inherently noisy with acoustic interferences. It is, therefore, beneficial for a species to modify its vocal production to effectively communicate in the presence of interfering noises. Non-human primates have been traditionally considered to possess limited voluntary vocal control, but little is known about their ability to modify vocal behavior when encountering interfering noises. Here we tested the ability of the common marmoset (Callithrix jacchus) to control the initiation of vocalizations and maintain vocal interactions between pairs in an acoustic environment in which the length and predictability (periodic or random aperiodic occurrences) of interfering noise bursts were varied. Despite the presence of interfering noise, the marmosets continued to engage in antiphonal calling behavior. Results showed that the overwhelming majority of calls were initiated during silence gaps even when the length of the silence gap following each noise burst was unpredictable. During the periodic noise conditions, as the length of the silence gap decreased, the latency between the end of noise burst and call onset decreased significantly. In contrast, when presented with aperiodic noise bursts, the marmosets chose to call predominantly during long (4 and 8s) over short (2s) silence gaps. In the 8s periodic noise conditions, a marmoset pair either initiated both calls of an antiphonal exchange within the same silence gap or exchanged calls in two consecutive silence gaps. Our findings provide compelling evidence that common marmosets are capable of modifying their vocal production according to the dynamics of their acoustic environment during vocal communication. Supplementary material available online at

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Habitat acoustics and primate communication

Cited by 215 publications

References 25 publications

Primate auditory diversity and its influence on hearing performance

Primate auditory diversity and its influence on hearing performance

Acoustic communication in noise: regulation of call characteristics in a New World monkey

Vocal control by the common marmoset in the presence of interfering noise

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