Smith Adam S, Birnie Andrew K, Lane Kent R, French Jeffrey A
Department of Psychology, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, Nebraska 68182, USA.
Am J Primatol. 2009 Apr;71(4):324-32. doi: 10.1002/ajp.20656.
Males and females from many species produce distinct acoustic variations of functionally identical call types. Social behavior may be primed by sex-specific variation in acoustic features of calls. We present a series of acoustic analyses and playback experiments as methods for investigating this subject. Acoustic parameters of phee calls produced by Wied's black-tufted-ear marmosets (Callithrix kuhlii) were analyzed for sex differences. Discriminant function analyses showed that calls contained sufficient acoustic variation to predict the sex of the caller. Several frequency variables differed significantly between the sexes. Natural and synthesized calls were presented to male-female pairs. Calls elicited differential behavioral responses based on the sex of the caller. Marmosets became significantly more vigilant following the playback of male phee calls (both natural and synthetic) than following female phee calls. In a second playback experiment, synthesized calls were modified by independently manipulating three parameters that were known to differ between the sexes (low-, peak-, and end-frequency). When end-frequency-modified calls were presented, responsiveness was differentiable by sex of caller but did not differ from responses to natural calls. This suggests that marmosets did not use end-frequency to determine the sex of the caller. Manipulation of peak-and low-frequency parameters eliminated the discrete behavioral responses to male and female calls. Together, these parameters may be important features that encode for the sex-specific signal. Recognition of sex by acoustic cues seems to be a multivariate process that depends on the congruency of acoustic features.
许多物种的雄性和雌性会发出功能相同的叫声类型，但在声学上存在明显差异。社交行为可能会受到叫声声学特征中性别特异性差异的影响。我们提出了一系列声学分析和回放实验，作为研究这一主题的方法。对 Wied 氏黑耳狨（Callithrix kuhlii）发出的 phee 叫声的声学参数进行了性别差异分析。判别函数分析表明，叫声包含足够的声学差异来预测呼叫者的性别。几个频率变量在性别之间存在显著差异。将自然叫声和合成叫声播放给雌雄配对的狨猴。叫声根据呼叫者的性别引发了不同的行为反应。与播放雌性 phee 叫声相比，播放雄性 phee 叫声（自然叫声和合成叫声）后，狨猴的警惕性显著提高。在第二个回放实验中，通过独立操纵已知在性别之间存在差异的三个参数（低频、峰值频率和终频）来修改合成叫声。当播放终频修改后的叫声时，反应性因呼叫者的性别而异，但与对自然叫声的反应没有差异。这表明狨猴不会使用终频来确定呼叫者的性别。对峰值频率和低频参数的操纵消除了对雄性和雌性叫声的离散行为反应。这些参数共同可能是编码性别特异性信号的重要特征。通过声学线索识别性别似乎是一个多变量过程，取决于声学特征的一致性。
