Long-lasting vocal plasticity in adult marmoset monkeys

Humans exhibit a high level of vocal plasticity in speech production which allows us to acquire both native and foreign languages, dialects and adapt to local accents in social communication. In comparison, non-human primates exhibit limited vocal plasticity, especially in adulthood, which would limit their ability to adapt to different social and environmental contexts in vocal communication. Here we quantitatively examined the ability of adult common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus), a highly vocal New World primate species, to modulate their vocal production in social contexts. While recent studies have demonstrated vocal learning in developing marmosets, we know much less on the extent of vocal learning and plasticity in adult marmosets. We found in the present study that marmosets were able to adaptively modify the spectrotemporal structure of their vocalizations when they encountered interfering sounds. Our experiments showed that marmosets shifted the spectrum of their vocalization...