Marmoset monkeys name each other

September 2 () –

Researchers at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem They have discovered that marmoset monkeys use specific vocal calls, called “phee-calls,” to identify and communicate with each other.

This discovery highlights the complexity of social communication in marmosets and suggests that their ability to vocally tag each other may provide valuable insights into the evolution of human language.

Naming others is a highly advanced cognitive ability observed in social animals and, until recently, It was known to exist only in humans, dolphins and elephantsCuriously, our closest evolutionary relatives, the non-human primates, seemed to completely lack this ability.

In a new study published in Sciencea team of researchers from the Hebrew University, led by Dr. David Omer of the Safra Center for Brain Sciences (ELSC), made a revolutionary discovery: for the first time, they found that marmoset monkeys They use specific calls, called “phee-calls”, to name each other.

To find out, the researchers, led by graduate student Guy Oren, recorded natural conversations between pairs of marmosets, as well as interactions between monkeys and a computer system. They found that these monkeys use their “phee-calls” to target specific individuals. Even more interestingly, the marmosets could discern when a call was directed at them, and responded more accurately when it was.

“This discovery highlights the complexity of social communication among marmosets,” explains Omer. “These calls are not only used for self-location, as previously thought; Marmosets use these specific calls to tag and address specific individuals.”

The study also revealed that members of a marmoset family use similar vocal labels to address different individuals and employ similar sound features to encode different names, similar to the use of names and dialects in humans. This learning appears to occur even among adult marmosets that are not related by blood, suggesting that they learn both the vocal labels and dialect of other members of their family group.

Researchers believe this vocal tagging may have evolved to help the marmosets stay connected in their dense rainforest habitat, where visibility is often limited. By using these calls, they are able to maintain their social bonds and keep the group cohesive.

“Marmosets live in small, monogamous family groups and raise their young together, much like we humans do,” says Omer. “These similarities suggest that they faced evolutionary social challenges comparable to our early prelinguistic ancestors, which could have led them to develop similar methods of communication.”

According to the authors, this research provides new insights into how human social communication and language might have evolved. The ability of marmosets to tag each other with specific calls suggests that they have developed complex brain mechanisms, possibly analogous to those that eventually gave rise to language in humans.