PLoS One. 2021 Dec 17;16(12):e0218006. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218006. eCollection 2021.
On reappearance and complexity in musical calling.
PloS one
David M Schruth, Christopher N Templeton, Darryl J Holman
Affiliations
Affiliations
- Department of Anthropology, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, United States of America.
- Department of Biology, Pacific University, Forest Grove, Oregon, United States of America.
PMID: 34919558
PMCID: PMC8683036 DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0218006
Abstract
Music is especially valued in human societies, but music-like behavior in the form of song also occurs in a variety of other animal groups including primates. The calling of our primate ancestors may well have evolved into the music of modern humans via multiple selective scenarios. But efforts to uncover these influences have been hindered by the challenge of precisely defining musical behavior in a way that could be more generally applied across species. We propose an acoustic focused reconsideration of "musicality" that could help enable independent inquiry into potential ecological pressures on the evolutionary emergence of such behavior. Using published spectrographic images (n = 832 vocalizations) from the primate vocalization literature, we developed a quantitative formulation that could be used to help recognize signatures of human-like musicality in the acoustic displays of other species. We visually scored each spectrogram along six structural features from human music-tone, interval, transposition, repetition, rhythm, and syllabic variation-and reduced this multivariate assessment into a concise measure of musical patterning, as informed by principal components analysis. The resulting acoustic reappearance diversity index (ARDI) estimates the number of different reappearing syllables within a call type. ARDI is in concordance with traditional measures of bird song complexity yet more readily identifies shorter, more subtly melodic primate vocalizations. We demonstrate the potential utility of this index by using it to corroborate several origins scenarios. When comparing ARDI scores with ecological features, our data suggest that vocalizations with diversely reappearing elements have a pronounced association with both social and environmental factors. Musical calls were moderately associated with wooded habitats and arboreal foraging, providing partial support for the acoustic adaptation hypothesis. But musical calling was most strongly associated with social monogamy, suggestive of selection for constituents of small family-sized groups by neighboring conspecifics. In sum, ARDI helps construe musical behavior along a continuum, accommodates non-human musicality, and enables gradualistic co-evolutionary paths between primate taxa-ranging from the more inhibited locational calls of archaic primates to the more exhibitional displays of modern apes.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
References
- Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 Mar 19;370(1664):20140089 - PubMed
- Nat Neurosci. 2003 Jul;6(7):663-8 - PubMed
- Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2018 Mar 15;: - PubMed
- Curr Biol. 2018 Feb 5;28(3):356-368.e5 - PubMed
- Hum Nat. 2003 Mar;14(1):21-51 - PubMed
- Anim Cogn. 2001 Nov;4(3-4):247-57 - PubMed
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Sep 27;108(39):16440-5 - PubMed
- Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2004 Jun;1016:704-23 - PubMed
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Jul 21;112(29):8809-10 - PubMed
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2013 Jan 2;110(1):70-5 - PubMed
- Am J Primatol. 1986;10(2):135-154 - PubMed
- Science. 2019 Nov 22;366(6468): - PubMed
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Feb 9;113(6):1666-71 - PubMed
- Science. 1976 Jul 16;193(4249):235-7 - PubMed
- Cognition. 2006 May;100(1):1-32 - PubMed
- Curr Biol. 2017 Feb 6;27(3):359-370 - PubMed
- Comp Cogn Behav Rev. 2017;12:5-18 - PubMed
- Ann N Y Acad Sci. 2001 Jun;930:43-61 - PubMed
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2015 Jul 21;112(29):8987-92 - PubMed
- Front Evol Neurosci. 2012 Aug 16;4:12 - PubMed
- Behav Brain Sci. 2020 Aug 20;44:e59 - PubMed
- Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 Mar 19;370(1664):20140091 - PubMed
- Am J Psychol. 1987 Fall-Winter;100(3-4):441-71 - PubMed
- Front Psychol. 2021 Aug 02;12:668300 - PubMed
- Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 May 8;104(19):8184-9 - PubMed
- Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 Mar 19;370(1664):20140088 - PubMed
- Ecol Lett. 2021 Mar;24(3):477-486 - PubMed
- Hum Brain Mapp. 2006 Mar;27(3):239-50 - PubMed
- Am J Phys Anthropol. 2018 Jul;166(3):499-509 - PubMed
- PLoS Biol. 2014 Mar 25;12(3):e1001821 - PubMed
- Top Cogn Sci. 2020 Jul;12(3):910-924 - PubMed
- Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci. 2015 Mar 19;370(1664):20140094 - PubMed
- Nature. 2016 Jul 28;535(7613):547-50 - PubMed
- Trends Ecol Evol. 1987 Apr;2(4):94-7 - PubMed
- Nature. 2009 Aug 6;460(7256):737-40 - PubMed
- J Theor Biol. 1983 Sep 7;104(1):121-35 - PubMed
- Multivariate Behav Res. 1966 Apr 1;1(2):245-76 - PubMed
- Nature. 1970 Aug 15;227(5259):669-71 - PubMed
Publication Types