Vocal learning in seals, sea lions, and walruses

Reichmuth, Colleen; Casey, Caroline

doi:10.1016/j.conb.2014.06.011

Cited by 95 publications

(81 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(22 reference statements)

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“…This is fortunately an area where the comparative database is rich, because a level of vocal control enabling the production of novel sounds from the environment has evolved multiple times in birds and mammals (Fitch, 2000b;Janik & Slater, 1997;Jarvis, 2007;Reichmuth & Casey, 2014). The current list of gifted vocal learners includes some species of songbirds, hummingbirds, parrots, cetaceans, seals, bats, and elephants.…”

Section: Speech and Vocal Production Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution

2017

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The study of language evolution, and human cognitive evolution more generally, has often been ridiculed as unscientific, but in fact it differs little from many other disciplines that investigate past events, such as geology or cosmology. Well-crafted models of language evolution make numerous testable hypotheses, and if the principles of strong inference (simultaneous testing of multiple plausible hypotheses) are adopted, there is an increasing amount of relevant data allowing empirical evaluation of such models. The articles in this special issue provide a concise overview of current models of language evolution, emphasizing the testable predictions that they make, along with overviews of the many sources of data available to test them (emphasizing comparative, neural, and genetic data). The key challenge facing the study of language evolution is not a lack of data, but rather a weak commitment to hypothesistesting approaches and strong inference, exacerbated by the broad and highly interdisciplinary nature of the relevant data. This introduction offers an overview of the field, and a summary of what needed to evolve to provide our species with language-ready brains. It then briefly discusses different contemporary models of language evolution, followed by an overview of different sources of data to test these models. I conclude with my own multistage model of how different components of language could have evolved.

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Section: Speech and Vocal Production Learningmentioning

confidence: 99%

Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution

2017

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“…One particularly wellknown case is the harbor seal Hoover, who was cared for by humans in infancy and developed a striking ability to produce certain phrases spoken by his early caretaker (Ralls et al, 1984). But Hoover remains the only pinniped individual to ever show strong evidence of mimicry (see the review in Reichmuth & Casey, 2014). It is decidedly not the case that vocal learning is a shared characteristic of all pinnipeds, whose different families diverged from one another at least 23 million years ago.…”

Section: Positive Evidencementioning

confidence: 99%

Rhythmic entrainment: Why humans want to, fireflies can’t help it, pet birds try, and sea lions have to be bribed

2016

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Until recently, the literature on rhythmic ability took for granted that only humans are able to synchronize body movements to an external beat-to entrain. This assumption has been undercut by findings of beat-matching in various species of parrots and, more recently, in a sea lion, several species of primates, and possibly horses. This throws open the question of how widespread beat-matching ability is in the animal kingdom. Here we reassess the arguments and evidence for an absence of beat-matching in animals, and conclude that in fact no convincing case against beatmatching in animals has been made. Instead, such evidence as there is suggests that this capacity could be quite widespread. Furthermore, mutual entrainment of oscillations is a general principle of physical systems, both biological and nonbiological, suggesting that entrainment of motor systems by sensory systems may be a default rather than an oddity. The question then becomes, not why a few privileged species are able to beat-match, but why species do not always do sowhy they vary in both spontaneous and learned beatmatching. We propose that when entrainment is not driven by fixed, mandatory connections between input and output (as in the case of, e.g., fireflies entraining to each others' flashes), it depends on voluntary control over, and voluntary or learned coupling of, sensory and motor systems, which can paradoxically lead to apparent failures of entrainment. Among the factors that affect whether an animal will entrain are sufficient control over the motor behavior to be entrained, sufficient perceptual sophistication to extract the entraining beat from the overall sensory environment, and the current cognitive state of the animal, including attention and motivation. The extent of entrainment in the animal kingdom potentially has widespread implications, not only for understanding the roots of human dance, but also for understanding the neural and cognitive architectures of animals.

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“…In both parrots and songbirds, which are vocal-learning birds, direct connections to the syringeal motor neurons have been documented that are not present in non-vocal-learning birds (Striedter 1994, Wild 1997. Similar studies are possible, but not yet completed, in vocal-learning mammals such as seals or bats (Knörnschild 2014, Reichmuth & Casey 2014, Vernes 2017). Neural autapomorphies associated with vocal motor control.…”

Section: Wwwannualreviewsorg • the Biology And Evolution Of Speech 267mentioning

confidence: 96%

The Biology and Evolution of Speech: A Comparative Analysis

Fitch

2018

Annu. Rev. Linguist.

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I analyze the biological underpinnings of human speech from a comparative perspective. By first identifying mechanisms that are evolutionarily derived relative to other primates, we obtain members of the faculty of language, derived components (FLD). Understanding when and why these evolved is central to understanding the evolution of speech. There is little evidence for human-specific mechanisms in auditory perception, and the hypothesis that speech perception is "special" is poorly supported by comparative data. Regarding speech production, human peripheral vocal anatomy includes several derived characteristics (permanently descended larynx, loss of air sacs), but their importance has been overestimated. In contrast, the central neural mechanisms underlying speech production involve crucial derived characteristics (direct monosynaptic connections from motor cortex to laryngeal motor neurons, derived intracortical dorsal circuitry between auditory and motor regions). Paleo-DNA from fossil hominins provides an exciting new opportunity to determine when these derived speech production mechanisms arose during evolution.

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Vocal learning in seals, sea lions, and walruses

Cited by 95 publications

References 43 publications

Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution

Empirical approaches to the study of language evolution

Rhythmic entrainment: Why humans want to, fireflies can’t help it, pet birds try, and sea lions have to be bribed

The Biology and Evolution of Speech: A Comparative Analysis

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