Steffen Hage, Eberhard Karls University, Tübingen: Vocal motor control mechanisms in marmoset monkeys: new insights into the evolution of human speech.

Monkey vocalizations have been assumed to be largely innate, highly affective, and stereotyped for over 50years. Recently, this perception has dramatically changed. Current studies including our own have revealeddistinct learning mechanisms during vocal development and vocal flexibility allowing monkeys to cognitivelycontrol when, where, and what to vocalize, all of which are crucial biological preadaptations in monkeys forthe emergence of a language system in humans. I will give an overview on our recent studies on marmosetmonkeys. I will present data that are indicating that vocalizations of marmoset monkeys do not consist of onediscrete call pattern but are built out of many sequentially uttered units, like human speech. Furthermore, Iwill give insights into recent studies that indicate a potential role of auditory feedback on vocal developmentin marmoset monkeys. Finally, I will show first data indicating that marmosets are able to control their vocaloutput in a goal-directed way to perform a specific task successfully and how this behavior can be used toinvestigate neural mechanisms underlying vocal motor control.