Abstract
Several strategies have evolved in the vertebrate lineage to facilitate signal transmission in vocal communication. Here, I present a mechanism to facilitate signal transmission in a group of communicating common squirrel monkeys (Saimiri sciureus sciureus). Vocal onsets of a conspecific affect call initiation in all other members of the group in less than 100 ms. The probability of vocal onsets in a range of 100 ms after the beginning of a vocalization of another monkey was significantly decreased compared to the mean probability of call onsets. Additionally, the probability for vocal onsets of conspecifics was significantly increased just a few hundreds of milliseconds after call onset of others. These behavioral data suggest neural mechanisms that suppress vocal output just after the onset of environmental noise, such as vocalizations of conspecifics, and increase the probability of call initiation of group mates shortly after. These findings add new audio–vocal behaviors to the known strategies that modulate signal transmission in vocal communication. The present study will guide future neurobiological studies that explore how the observed audio–vocal behaviors are implemented in the monkey brain.
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Acknowledgments
I thank Uwe Jürgens and two anonymous referees for their helpful comments on this manuscript. Furthermore, I thank Kurt Hammerschmidt for his helpful advice on statistical methods and Simon N. Jacob for proof reading. All research described here was approved by the Animals Ethics Committee of the District Government Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, Germany. The experiments conformed to the NIH guidelines on the ethical use of animals.
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Hage, S.R. Audio–vocal interactions during vocal communication in squirrel monkeys and their neurobiological implications. J Comp Physiol A 199, 663–668 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-013-0810-1
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00359-013-0810-1