Humans recognize affective cues in primate vocalizations: acoustic and phylogenetic perspectives
C Debracque1, K E Slocombe2, Z Clay3
1Department of Psychology and Educational Sciences and Swiss Center for Affective Sciences (CISA), Campus Biotech, University of Geneva, Chemin des Mines 9, 1202, Geneva, Switzerland. coralie.debracque@unige.ch.
Scientific Reports
|July 5, 2023
Summary
Humans can recognize emotions in primate vocalizations, but this ability depends on both acoustic similarities and evolutionary closeness. Findings suggest complex origins for vocal emotions across species.
Area of Science:
- Comparative Psychology
- Bioacoustics
- Evolutionary Biology
Background:
- Humans effectively interpret affective vocalizations from various species.
- The drivers of cross-species affective vocalization recognition (acoustic parameters vs. phylogenetic closeness) remain unclear.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the roles of acoustic parameters and phylogenetic relationships in human perception of non-human primate affective vocalizations.
- To analyze vocalizations from humans, rhesus macaques, chimpanzees, and bonobos.
Main Methods:
- Acoustic analysis of 96 affective vocalizations (agonistic and affiliative contexts).
- Human participant study involving categorization and discrimination of vocalizations based on affective content.
Main Results:
- Chimpanzee affiliative vocalizations were acoustically closer to human affiliative calls than bonobo calls.
- Humans reliably categorized human and chimpanzee vocalizations by affect but struggled with bonobo and macaque calls.
- Discrimination of calls was successful across species, except for bonobo and macaque threat vocalizations.
Conclusions:
- Both phylogenetic proximity and acoustic features influence cross-species emotional perception in vocalizations.
- Vocal emotion recognition is shaped by complex evolutionary and acoustic factors, particularly evident in primate communication.
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