The marmosets respect the right to speak when communicating ... - The Mundo.es

ability to socialize politely, showing respect and quiet when someone else is involved, there is a unique quality of (some) people. Researchers at Princeton University (USA) have observed that marmosets respect the right to speak and to use education standards for its human-like conversations.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, suggests that this attitude is characteristic of these primates as the great apes take turns when communicating.

“The marmosets are respected and used similar rules to those used during conversations people” , says Asif Ghazanfar, a researcher at Princeton University and an author of the study. “These monkeys are very social, much more than chimpanzees” , stands Ghazanfar.

A sociable species

The scientists were particularly interested in marmosets that have two characteristics similar to humans: are a very sociable and friendly, and their individuals communicate through vocal sound production . According to the hypothesis of the scientists, these qualities allow them to maintain self-control and respect for communication with certain standards.

“This quality is much closer to human conversations between communications between animals, such as birds, frogs or crickets, species in which the ‘dialogue’ is linked to mating or territorial defense,” explains Ghazanfar.

To test this theory, different marmosets were placed at the corners of a room, so they could be heard but not seen, and recorded the exchanges that occurred during a time of 30 minutes to an hour.

In the experiment, the researchers noted that these primates do not communicate at once but wait about five seconds after each response .

research among its objectives was to study the evolutionary origins of communication between the different members of a group of marmosets . “These monkeys are ‘cooperative breeders’ as human beings, ie all share the care of young children ” emphasizes Ghazanfar.

Communication Disorders

Experts emphasize that they are “an excellent animal model” with which to investigate the evolutionary origins of vocal communication and can help locate why disorders occur in human communication.

addition, the study says that, despite that both humans and marmosets are from different evolutionary branches, the data indicate a similar route in the progress and development of vocal communication capabilities without using gestures. “The gestures are popular hypothesis and our data contrast with some of those theories” argues Ghazanfar.