Human brains light up unexpectedly for chimp voices
3 days ago
- #neuroscience
- #primate vocalizations
- #acoustic processing
- The study investigates how the human brain processes vocalizations from different primate species, focusing on the temporal voice areas (TVA).
- It includes vocalizations from humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, and rhesus macaques to compare neural responses based on phylogenetic and acoustic proximity.
- Results show that chimpanzee vocalizations trigger specific activity in the anterior superior temporal gyrus (aSTG) within the TVA, suggesting neural commonalities due to acoustic and phylogenetic closeness.
- Macaque vocalizations also activated certain TVA subregions, indicating that the TVA is not exclusively for conspecific vocalizations but can respond to phylogenetically distant species under certain conditions.
- The study highlights the importance of acoustic features, such as fundamental frequency, in influencing TVA activity, with chimpanzee calls being acoustically closer to human voices than bonobo or macaque calls.
- Findings challenge the view of TVA as species-specific, proposing instead that these areas can process heterospecific vocalizations if they share sufficient acoustic similarities with human vocalizations.
- The research suggests evolutionary continuity in vocal processing between humans and chimpanzees, with implications for understanding the neural basis of social communication across primates.