Cargando…

Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms

A key feature of vocal ontogeny in a variety of taxa with extensive vocal repertoires is a developmental pattern in which vocal exploration is followed by a period of category formation that results in a mature species-specific repertoire. Vocal development preceding the adult repertoire is often ca...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: ter Haar, Sita M., Fernandez, Ahana A., Gratier, Maya, Knörnschild, Mirjam, Levelt, Claartje, Moore, Roger K., Vellema, Michiel, Wang, Xiaoqin, Oller, D. Kimbrough
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8419573/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34482727
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0239
_version_ 1783748782150647808
author ter Haar, Sita M.
Fernandez, Ahana A.
Gratier, Maya
Knörnschild, Mirjam
Levelt, Claartje
Moore, Roger K.
Vellema, Michiel
Wang, Xiaoqin
Oller, D. Kimbrough
author_facet ter Haar, Sita M.
Fernandez, Ahana A.
Gratier, Maya
Knörnschild, Mirjam
Levelt, Claartje
Moore, Roger K.
Vellema, Michiel
Wang, Xiaoqin
Oller, D. Kimbrough
author_sort ter Haar, Sita M.
collection PubMed
description A key feature of vocal ontogeny in a variety of taxa with extensive vocal repertoires is a developmental pattern in which vocal exploration is followed by a period of category formation that results in a mature species-specific repertoire. Vocal development preceding the adult repertoire is often called ‘babbling’, a term used to describe aspects of vocal development in species of vocal-learning birds, some marine mammals, some New World monkeys, some bats and humans. The paper summarizes the results of research on babbling in examples from five taxa and proposes a unifying definition facilitating their comparison. There are notable similarities across these species in the developmental pattern of vocalizations, suggesting that vocal production learning might require babbling. However, the current state of the literature is insufficient to confirm this suggestion. We suggest directions for future research to elucidate this issue, emphasizing the importance of (i) expanding the descriptive data and seeking species with complex mature repertoires where babbling may not occur or may occur only to a minimal extent; (ii) (quasi-)experimental research to tease apart possible mechanisms of acquisition and/or self-organizing development; and (iii) computational modelling as a methodology to test hypotheses about the origins and functions of babbling. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-8419573
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2021
publisher The Royal Society
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-84195732021-10-07 Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms ter Haar, Sita M. Fernandez, Ahana A. Gratier, Maya Knörnschild, Mirjam Levelt, Claartje Moore, Roger K. Vellema, Michiel Wang, Xiaoqin Oller, D. Kimbrough Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Articles A key feature of vocal ontogeny in a variety of taxa with extensive vocal repertoires is a developmental pattern in which vocal exploration is followed by a period of category formation that results in a mature species-specific repertoire. Vocal development preceding the adult repertoire is often called ‘babbling’, a term used to describe aspects of vocal development in species of vocal-learning birds, some marine mammals, some New World monkeys, some bats and humans. The paper summarizes the results of research on babbling in examples from five taxa and proposes a unifying definition facilitating their comparison. There are notable similarities across these species in the developmental pattern of vocalizations, suggesting that vocal production learning might require babbling. However, the current state of the literature is insufficient to confirm this suggestion. We suggest directions for future research to elucidate this issue, emphasizing the importance of (i) expanding the descriptive data and seeking species with complex mature repertoires where babbling may not occur or may occur only to a minimal extent; (ii) (quasi-)experimental research to tease apart possible mechanisms of acquisition and/or self-organizing development; and (iii) computational modelling as a methodology to test hypotheses about the origins and functions of babbling. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’. The Royal Society 2021-10-25 2021-09-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8419573/ /pubmed/34482727 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0239 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Articles
ter Haar, Sita M.
Fernandez, Ahana A.
Gratier, Maya
Knörnschild, Mirjam
Levelt, Claartje
Moore, Roger K.
Vellema, Michiel
Wang, Xiaoqin
Oller, D. Kimbrough
Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms
title Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms
title_full Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms
title_fullStr Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms
title_full_unstemmed Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms
title_short Cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms
title_sort cross-species parallels in babbling: animals and algorithms
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8419573/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34482727
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0239
work_keys_str_mv AT terhaarsitam crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT fernandezahanaa crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT gratiermaya crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT knornschildmirjam crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT leveltclaartje crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT moorerogerk crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT vellemamichiel crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT wangxiaoqin crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms
AT ollerdkimbrough crossspeciesparallelsinbabblinganimalsandalgorithms