Acquisition of predator knowledge from alarm calls via one-trial social learning in monkeys

This work was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation Agreement project grants 31003A_166458 (KZ) and 310030_185324 (KZ), and the Swiss National Centre of Competence in Research (NCCR) Evolving Language, Swiss National Science Foundation Agreement #51NF40_180888 (KZ).How do animals learn to classify the world and what is the role of social learning during this process? Here, we show that young sooty mangabeys, Cercocebus atys, of Taï Forest, Côte d’Ivoire, learn to rapidly classify an unfamiliar predator by attending to others’ alarm calls and that such knowledge is retained over long periods. We experimentally exposed subjects to chimeric predator models with both snake- and leopard-like features, combined with playbacks of conspecific snake (N=12) or leopard alarms (N=13). Adults classified the chimeras as non-threatening but for juveniles, we found that one single alarm call exposure was sufficient to allocate the chimera to the snake or leopard category, suggesting plausibility judgments in experienced adults. We then retested N=10 juveniles with the same models more than a year after their first experience and found that they continued to show their original response, indicating long-term retention of socially learned predator categorisation.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Exploring the cerebral substrate of voice perception in primate brains

International audienceOne can consider human language to be the Swiss army knife of the vast domain of animal communication. There is now growing evidence suggesting that this technology may have emerged from already operational material instead of being a sudden innovation. Sharing ideas and thoughts with conspecifics via language constitutes an amazing ability, but what value would it hold if our conspecifics were not first detected and recognized? Conspecific voice (CV) perception is fundamental to communication and widely shared across the animal kingdom. Two questions that arise then are: is this apparently shared ability reflected in common cerebral substrate? And, how has this substrate evolved? The paper addresses these questions by examining studies on the cerebral basis of CV perception in humans' closest relatives, non-human primates. Neuroimaging studies, in particular, suggest the existence of a ‘voice patch system’, a network of interconnected cortical areas that can provide a common template for the cerebral processing of CV in primates

Ensemble learning for the detection of pli-de-passages in the superior temporal sulcus

International audienceThe surface of the cerebral cortex is very convoluted, with a large number of folds, the cortical sulci. These folds are extremely variable from one individual to another, and this large variability is a problem for many applications in neuroscience and brain imaging. In particular, sulcal geometry (shape) and sulcal topology (branches, number of pieces) are very variable. "Plis de passages" (PPs) or "annectant gyri" can explain part of the topological variability, namely why sulci have a variable number of pieces across subjects. The concept of PPs was first introduced by Gratiolet (1854) to describe transverse gyri that interconnect both sides of a sulcus, that are frequently buried in the depth of sulci, and that are sometimes apparent on the cortical surface, hence seemingly interrupting the course of sulci and separating them in several pieces. Nevertheless, the difficulty of identifying PPs and the lack of systematic methods to automatically detect them has limited their use. However, based on a recent characterization of PPs in the superior temporal sulcus, we present here a method to automatically detect PPs in the superior temporal sulcus. Local morphology within the sulcus is characterized using cortical surface profiling, and the three-dimensional PP recognition problem is performed as a two-dimensional image classification problem with class-imbalance. This is solved by using an ensemble support vector machine model (EnsSVM) with a rebalancing strategy. Cross validation and quantitative experimental results on an external dataset show the effectiveness and robustness of our approach

Automatic Detection of Plis De Passage in the Superior Temporal Sulcus using Surface Profiling and Ensemble SVM

International audienceCortical folding, an essential characteristic of the brain cortex, shows variability across individuals. Plis de passages (PPs), namely annectant gyri buried inside the fold, can explain part of the variability. However, a systematic method of automatically detecting all PPs is still not available. In this paper, we present a method to detect the PPs on the cortex automatically. We first extract the geometry information of the localized areas on the cortex via surface profiling. Then, an ensemble support vector machine (SVM) is developed to identify the PPs. Experimental results show the effectiveness and robustness of our method

Anatomo-Functional correspondence in the superior temporal sulcus

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Multisite pacing via a quadripolar lead for cardiac resynchronization therapy

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Functionally homologous representation of vocalizations in the auditory cortex of humans and macaques

International audienceHow the evolution of speech has transformed the human auditory cortex compared to other primates remains largely unknown. While primary auditory cortex is organized largely similarly in humans and macaques,1the picture is much less clear at higher levels of the anterior auditory pathway,2particularly regarding the processing of conspecific vocalizations (CVs). A “voice region” similar to the human voice-selective areashas been identified in the macaque right anterior temporal lobe with functional MRIhowever, its anatomical localization, seemingly inconsistent with that of the human temporal voice areas (TVAs), has suggested a “repositioning of the voice area” in recent human evolution.6Here we report a functional homology in the cerebral processing of vocalizations by macaques and humans, using comparative fMRI and a condition-rich auditory stimulation paradigm. We find that the anterior temporal lobe of both species possesses cortical voice areas that are bilateral and not only prefer conspecific vocalizations but also implement a representational geometry categorizing them apart from all other sounds in a species-specific but homologous manner. These results reveal a more similar functional organization of higher-level auditory cortex in macaques and humans than currently known

Accelerating the Evolution of Nonhuman Primate Neuroimaging

© 2019 Elsevier Inc. Nonhuman primate neuroimaging is on the cusp of a transformation, much in the same way its human counterpart was in 2010, when the Human Connectome Project was launched to accelerate progress. Inspired by an open data-sharing initiative, the global community recently met and, in this article, breaks through obstacles to define its ambitions