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Multisensory vocal communication in primates and the evolution of rhythmic speech

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Abstract

The integration of the visual and auditory modalities during human speech perception is the default mode of speech processing. That is, visual speech perception is not a capacity that is “piggybacked” on to auditory-only speech perception. Visual information from the mouth and other parts of the face is used by all perceivers to enhance auditory speech. This integration is ubiquitous and automatic and is similar across all individuals across all cultures. The two modalities seem to be integrated even at the earliest stages of human cognitive development. If multisensory speech is the default mode of perception, then this should be reflected in the evolution of vocal communication. The purpose of this review is to describe the data that reveal that human speech is not uniquely multisensory. In fact, the default mode of communication is multisensory in nonhuman primates as well but perhaps emerging with a different developmental trajectory. Speech production, however, exhibits a unique bimodal rhythmic structure in that both the acoustic output and the movements of the mouth are rhythmic and tightly correlated. This structure is absent in most monkey vocalizations. One hypothesis is that the bimodal speech rhythm may have evolved through the rhythmic facial expressions of ancestral primates, as indicated by mounting comparative evidence focusing on the lip-smacking gesture.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the scientific contributions and numerous discussions with the following people: Adrian Bartlett, Chand Chandrasekaran, Ipek Kulahci, Darshana Narayanan, Stephen Shepherd, Daniel Takahashi, and Hjalmar Turesson. This work was supported by NIH R01NS054898 and the James S. McDonnell Scholar Award.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Neuroscience Institute, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA

    Asif A. Ghazanfar

  2. Departments of Psychology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA

    Asif A. Ghazanfar

  3. Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ, 08540, USA

    Asif A. Ghazanfar

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Correspondence to Asif A. Ghazanfar.

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Communicated by J. Higham

This manuscript is part of the special issue “Multimodal Communication”. Guest Editors: James P. Higham and Eileen A. Hebets

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Ghazanfar, A.A. Multisensory vocal communication in primates and the evolution of rhythmic speech. Behav Ecol Sociobiol 67, 1441–1448 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00265-013-1491-z

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