Links for Keyword: Animal Communication

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Researchers have discovered that some monkeys process the sounds of other monkeys in their brains much like the way people process language. As this ScienCentral News video reports, it's a discovery that may lead to a better understanding of how people acquired the ability to communicate. We've all seen primates when they are monkeying around. But how much actual communicating is going on? "[Monkeys] do communicate vocally," says John Roden, Curator of Animals at the Central Park Zoo. "They definitely have different vocalizations that they'll do, that I would say have a communicative role in their interactions. If they are startled, they might make a loud vocalization that would alert the group that there's potential danger around. They have smaller vocalizations, if they find a food source or something like that, that they might want to share with others. It's not necessarily as complex, obviously, as human vocalization, but it certainly does convey information." © ScienCentral, 2000-2004.

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 5078 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Ants avoid traffic jams

Foraging workers push and shove to steer others around bottlenecks. MICHAEL HOPKIN When it comes to traffic congestion, ants prefer the no-nonsense approach - they barge others out of the way, forcing them to take an alternative route. The strategy allows ants to prevent time-consuming blockages on foraging trails, say European researchers. Foraging ants lay down scent cues that allow others to follow the route between the nest and a food source. As more ants follow the trail, the chemical signposts are reinforced and become more attractive. But problems can arise when too many ants try to use the route, says Vincent Fourcassié of the Université Paul Sabatier in Toulouse, France. His team found that ants are surprisingly good at avoiding congestion, simply by shoving each other off the main highway and on to back streets. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2004

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 9: Hearing, Vestibular Perception, Taste, and Smell
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 6: Hearing, Balance, Taste, and Smell
Link ID: 5074 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Victorious birds sing triumph over losers

NewScientist.com news service Sports fans are not the only ones to celebrate a win with a rousing tune - a chirpy African bird does the same, researchers have revealed. Mate pairs of the tropical boubou belt out their special victory song after they have deterred would-be invaders from their territory, suggest Ulmar Grafe and Johannes Bitz at the University of Würzburg, Germany. The discovery was made by accident, the scientists happily admit. They were investigating the birds' musical repertoire in the Ivory Coast when they noticed that whenever they packed up their equipment and left the bird territories, the birds would trill a particular tune. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry; Chapter 15: Emotions, Aggression, and Stress
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain; Chapter 11: Emotions, Aggression, and Stress
Link ID: 4953 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Puzzled monkeys reveal key language step

The key cognitive step that allowed humans to become the only animals using language may have been identified, scientists say. A new study on monkeys found that while they are able to understand basic rules about word patterns, they are not able to follow more complex rules that underpin the crucial next stage of language structure. For example, the monkeys could master simple word structures, analogous to realising that "the" and "a" are always followed by another word. But they were unable to grasp phrase patterns analogous to "if... then..." constructions. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 4811 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Songbird duets resonate to beat

Physics underlies rhythms of South American birdsong. PHILIP BALL The synchronized rhythms of South American ovenbirds may be driven by simple physics, say researchers, rather than deep-rooted musical talent. The thrush-sized Hornero, Furnarius rufus, is common to Brazil and Argentina and famed for its oven-shaped nest. When a male and female strike up song, the male begins by singing roughly six notes per second and gradually upping the tempo. Instead of keeping pace with her partner, the female punctuates his beat with one of her own1. The result is "a most appealing rhythm," say Rodrigo Laje of City University in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Gabriel Mindlin of the University of California at San Diego. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry; Chapter 12: Sex: Evolutionary, Hormonal, and Neural Bases
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain; Chapter 8: Hormones and Sex
Link ID: 4744 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Risky diddling bonds baboons

Male apes share intense greetings only with close friends. JOHN WHITFIELD Want to show someone you really like them? Slap them in the face. That, at least, seems to be the message of baboon salutations. The closer the social bond between two animals, the more intrusive and risky the greeting when they meet. For male Guinea baboons (Papio papio), this involves ritualized fiddling with each other's genitals. Baboons impose on each other to demonstrate and test the strength of their relationship, says Jessica Whitham of the University of Chicago. The hazards involved in such intimacy mean that only truly trusting apes will get up close and personal, she says. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 12: Sex: Evolutionary, Hormonal, and Neural Bases
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 8: Hormones and Sex
Link ID: 4476 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Judge silences Navy's sonar plans

She says devices endanger whales and other sea life Jane Kay, Chronicle Environment Writer A federal judge knocked down Tuesday a Navy plan to deploy submarine-hunting sonar in most of the world's oceans, saying the devices endanger entire populations of whales, porpoises and fish. Magistrate Judge Elizabeth Laporte of the U.S. District Court in San Francisco said a permanent injunction should be issued that will bar the Navy from using sonar in areas including 14 million square miles, or about 40 percent, of the Pacific Ocean. But she left open the possibility of limited use of new low-frequency active sonar technology for testing and training in certain areas not considered rich in sea life. Also, Congress is considering legislation that would effectively allow wider use of the sonar technology, despite the judge's ruling. ©2003 San Francisco Chronicle

City birds hit the high notes to beat traffic hum

Birds may pitch songs to win mates despite urban din. MICHAEL HOPKIN City birds sing higher-pitched songs than their country cousins. The trick could make their mating calls audible over the low roar of traffic, researchers suggest1. Hans Slabbekoorn and Margriet Peet of Leiden University in the Netherlands surveyed 32 male great tits (Parus major) around Leiden, recording songs and measuring the level of background noise. "Some were next to a really busy road - others were in quiet residential neighbourhoods," Slabbekoorn explains. Town tits hit the high notes, the pair found, whereas rural ones favour their lower registers. Urban birds may stand a better chance of being heard over the loud, low-frequency rumbling of engines if they use mainly high notes. Especially since they don't seem to wait for a quiet moment before performing. "They continue to sing regardless of whether cars are going past," says Slabbekoorn. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 9: Hearing, Vestibular Perception, Taste, and Smell; Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 6: Hearing, Balance, Taste, and Smell; Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 4052 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Mathematics reveals the cuttlefish's wink

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition The remarkable visual vocabulary of cuttlefish, which change the colour of their skin in a flash for communication or camouflage, is being catalogued with the help of a mathematical technique borrowed from signal processing. Independent component analysis (ICA) was invented to untangle mixtures of signals. For example, it can pick out individual voices from the babble of a crowd. Now cuttlefish expert Daniel Osorio and his colleagues from the University of Sussex in Britain are hoping it can help them work out which basic elements cuttlefish use to build up their sophisticated patterns. They called in neuroscientist John Anderson, also at Sussex, to help as they photographed a cuttlefish (Sepia officinalis) swimming around in a tank. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 3823 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Genes sing new song

Mimic birds share brain molecules. HELEN R. PILCHER Scientists have zeroed in on the set of brain genes that enable parrots and songbirds to mimic tunes, heard this week's American Association of the Advancement of Science annual meeting. Most birds sing the same old song every day; but some, such as hummingbirds and parrots, incorporate new sounds or words into their calls. This skill is equivalent to humans piecing together words into a sentence. These birds all switch on the same genes in specific vocal regions of their brains, says neuroscientist Erich Jarvis of Duke University, North Carolina. The genes make receptors that are thought to help nerve cells communicate when learning new sounds. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003

Virtual bird brain matches nature's tunes

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition Adding a virtual brain to a computer model of a singing bird has allowed scientists to figure out how birds compose their songs. The feat hints that we might one day be able to map some of the complex circuitry in an animal's brain just by listening to its calls. When birds sing, they force air from their lungs past folds of tissue in the voice box. Just over a year ago, scientists at Rockefeller University in New York and the University of Buenos Aires in Argentina reported that they had developed a simple computer model that mimics this process to produce sound. By simulating changes in the tension of the vocal folds and in the air pressure from the lungs, the model reproduced the song of a canary (New Scientist print edition, 10 November 2001). © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Dog Sense: Domestication gave canines innate insight into human gestures

Carol Marzuola Anybody who's ever moved a muscle toward a leash will agree that dogs understand human body language. The animals' capacity to do this, suggests new research, was evolutionarily engrained since they became people's canine companion about 15,000 years ago. Previous studies have shown that dogs can use human cues to find hidden food. For example, dogs that watch experimenters look or point at a sealed bowl enclosing a meal then choose correctly between that container and an empty one. "Conventional wisdom would say that [people] train dogs to do this," explains Michael Tomasello, a comparative psychologist at the Max Planck Institute in Leipzig, Germany. But his team's findings support another view. Tomasello and his colleagues compared various animals taking the food-container challenge. Dogs were always better than human-reared wolves at finding the food. And they even outwitted chimpanzees. The research team was surprised to find that 9-to-26-week-old puppies, including some rarely exposed to people, could use the researchers' cues to find food. From Science News, Vol. 162, No. 21, Nov. 23, 2002, p. 324. Copyright ©2002 Science Service. All rights reserved.

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 6: Evolution of the Brain and Behavior; Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 0: ; Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 3067 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Seals learn killers' clicks

Whales give away their predatory intentions. TOM CLARKE Harbour seals can distinguish between the sounds of friends and foes. The mammals flee at the sound of distant chatter between killer whales with a taste for seal blood, but continue to feed when fish-eating killer whales converse nearby, new research shows1. "We assume a lot of intelligence from whales," says Volker Deecke, who led the study. "This shows that seals are quite bright little animals too." Deecke's team watched wild harbour seals near Vancouver, Canada, respond to various recordings of killer whales' calls broadcast underwater. Killer whales cruise America's Pacific Northwest. Some live in large family groups along the coastline, feeding exclusively on fish. Others patrol hundreds of miles of coast in smaller packs, hunting harbour seals. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

'Collective stomach' drives wasp society

Exclusive from New Scientist Print Edition The mystery of how social wasps, not terribly smart as individuals, build and maintain a complex nest that lasts many generations may have been solved. A new mathematical model suggests that one key factor drives their behaviour: the amount of water in the nest. Social wasps cannot learn from one another - unlike bees, which use a complex dance to tell nest mates where sources of nectar are. Nor do they use pheromones the way ants do to lead other ants to food. Robert Jeanne of the University of Wisconsin-Madison proposed that wasps set up a demand-driven chain of information. At the end of the chain, builder wasps monitor the nest and, when necessary, request pulp from pulp forager wasps. They in turn demand water from water foragers in order to make the pulp. © Copyright Reed Business Information Ltd.

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry; Chapter 17: Learning and Memory
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain; Chapter 13: Memory, Learning, and Development
Link ID: 2927 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Dolphin hear, dolphin do

Captive dolphins base their whistles on human sounds. KENDALL POWELL Young captive dolphins mimic their trainer's whistle in their calls to other dolphins, researchers say1. The finding is some of the first evidence that animals use imitated sounds to communicate with each other. "In developing their whistle, young dolphins are incorporating sounds they hear in their environment into their vocalization," says Peter Tyack, who studies animal behavior at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, Massachusetts. When separated from their social group, dolphins whistle in short, unique bursts to signal their location and identity. They whistle through their blowholes at frequencies almost too high for humans to hear. Their human trainers use a dog whistle to communicate with the dolphins. © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2002

Testing Potential Alzheimer Vaccines

Researchers seek to turn antibodies against the amyloid-forming peptide in both mice and humans By Douglas Steinberg In 1999, scientists at Elan Corp.'s South San Francisco, Calif. facility stunned the Alzheimer Disease (AD) research community: vaccination, they announced, reduces AD-like pathology in transgenic mice.1 Since then, dozens of labs have been working on vaccines to prevent, retard, or reverse AD's devastating symptoms. One clinical trial is finished, a second is under way, and others appear imminent. In animal studies, researchers are testing different types of vaccines and examining how the immune system might foil the disease. After soliciting applications for AD vaccine projects, the National Institutes of Health last fall began distributing $22.5 million (US) to 13 studies, according to D. Stephen Snyder, a program director at the National Institute on Aging. Before Elan's study, "there were a lot of reasons to think not only that [vaccines] shouldn't be done but that they would make things worse," says Dale B. Schenk, the company's vice president of discovery research. The prevailing wisdom was that disease-fighting antibodies, which vaccines stimulate, couldn't penetrate the blood-brain barrier. If antibodies did sneak into the brain, the fear was that they would trigger a massive, unhealthy immune response. Schenk recalls that the vaccine study consequently had a "very low priority" at Dublin-based Elan. But he eventually mustered a large team that discovered the benefits to vaccinating an AD mouse model with b-amyloid (Ab ), the peptide that aggregates into amyloid plaques in Alzheimer brains. Mice that started receiving intramuscular injections when six weeks old didn't develop plaques and other neuropathology. Vaccinations begun at 11 months of age sharply reduced pathology, with plaques in the frontal cortex plunging 84% compared to controls. D. Schenk et al., "Immunization with amyloid-b attenuates Alzheimer-disease-like pathology in the PDAPP mouse," Nature, 400:173-7, 1999. The Scientist 16[2]:23, Jan. 21, 2002 © Copyright 2002, The Scientist, Inc. All rights reserved.

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 7: Life-Span Development of the Brain and Behavior
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 13: Memory, Learning, and Development
Link ID: 1361 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Squeak first: Mouse communication suggests language has deep roots.

JEREMY THOMSON The squeaks made by baby mice in the nest are similar to some human infant sounds, new research suggests, hinting that linguistic communication may be based on mechanisms that evolved long ago. Günter Ehret and Sabine Riecke of the University of Ulm, Germany, recorded the wriggling calls baby mice emit when struggling to reach their mother's teat or falling out of the nest. Mother mice respond to some calls by nest building, changing position or licking pups. Ehret and Riecke found that mothers react to the calls that contain word-like groups of at least three clearly separated tones, each of a different frequency. Similarly, the human ear can distinguish vowel sounds easily only if they contain three distinct notes.1 * Ehret, G. & Riecke, S. Mice and humans perceive multiharmonic communications sound in the same way. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 99, 479 - 482, (2002). © Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2001

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 1237 - Posted: 06.24.2010

Hummingbird 'uses tail to chirp'

A species of hummingbird makes a chirping noise with its tail feathers, not its throat, a study using high-speed video has suggested. The exact source of the noise from male Anna's hummingbirds has been the subject of debate among researchers. By using specialised footage, a team of US scientists were able to show that male hummingbirds' tail feathers vibrated during high-speed dives. The findings appear in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B journal. The loud chirp sound is produced by male Anna's hummingbirds (Calypte anna) as the birds dive towards the ground at speeds that exceed 50mph (80km/h) during their displays for nearby females. The researchers, Chris Clarke and Teresa Feo from the University of California, Berkeley, wrote in their paper that they had gathered evidence that put an end to the uncertainty surrounding the source of the sound. "Production of the sound was originally attributed to the tail, but a more recent study argued that the sound was vocal. "We use high-speed video of diving birds, experimental manipulation on wild birds and laboratory experiments on individual feathers to show that the dive sound is made by tail feathers," they explained. The pair added that while bird vocalisation had received considerable attention, non-vocal or "mechanical" sounds had been "poorly described". "A diverse array of birds apparently make mechanical sounds with their feathers. Few studies have established that these sounds are non-vocal, and the mechanics of how these sounds are produced remain poorly studied," the scientists wrote. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 11269 - Posted: 02.01.2008

The world of mountain gorillas

The Democratic Republic of Congo's Virunga National Park and the surrounding Virunga volcanoes region are home to more than half of the world's population of mountain gorillas. To ensure the long-term survival of this threatened species, teams of rangers monitor and patrol the park's Gorilla Sector. Two of the rangers, Diddy and Innocent, have been keeping a weekly diary for the BBC News website that offers an insight into life on the frontline of conservation. Here, they also share video footage that they have been recording over the past few months. MEET THE GORILLAS Here is footage of some of the park's gorilla groups, known as "families", which are named after the dominant male or "silverback". Innocent, head of gorilla monitoring, is able to recognise every gorilla within the sector. Each animal has a unique "nose print" that enables rangers to tell them apart. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 11240 - Posted: 01.25.2008

Animal world's communication kings

By Rebecca Morelle The discovery that apes can "talk" using hand gestures may shed more light on language development. But these are not the only animals with communication skills - in the animal kingdom, it is all about getting your message out there. And in a bid to understand how one of the most complex communication systems of all - human language - came about, scientists are also studying animals that, like us, use sound to communicate. Surprisingly, they have discovered our closest relatives, despite their signing prowess, do not have much of a vocal repertoire. Dr Klaus Zuberbuhler, an expert in primate communication from the University of St Andrews, UK, says: "Most of the non-human primate species only have a fairly limited number of sounds that they can generate." But while primate "vocabulary" is restricted, scientists have found many species can attach meanings to some sounds to convey information. Vervet monkeys, for example, have three distinct alarm calls that trigger three distinct response calls. And some species, says Dr Zuberbuhler, can do even more: they possess the ability to use and understand simple grammar. Putty-nosed monkeys, he explains, can combine their calls to create a sequence that carries a more complex meaning. (C)BBC

Related chapters from BP6e: Chapter 19: Language and Hemispheric Asymmetry
Related chapters from MM:Chapter 15: Language and Our Divided Brain
Link ID: 10255 - Posted: 05.02.2007

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Links for Keyword: Animal Communication