Topic: nonhuman primates

What do nonhuman primates know about each other and their social environment, how do they allocate their attention, and what are the functional consequences of social decisions in natural settings? Addressing these questions is crucial to hone in on the co-evolution of cognition, social behaviour and communication, and ultimately the evolution of intelligence in the primate order. I will present results from field experimental and observational studies on free-ranging baboons, which tap into the cognitive abilities of these animals. Baboons are particularly valuable in this context as differen

The evolution of speech is considered to be one of the hardest problems in science. Studies of the communicative abilities of our closest living relatives, the nonhuman primates, aim to contribute to a better understanding of the emergence of this uniquely human capability. Following a brief introduction over the key building blocks that make up the human speech faculty, I will focus on the question of meaning in nonhuman primate vocalizations. While nonhuman primate calls may be highly context specific, thus giving rise to the notion of ‘referentiality’, comparisons across closely related spe

Recent advances in neuronal recording technology have facilitated the development of large-scale, high-density microelectrode arrays resulting in a substantial increase (>10x) in the number of neurons that can be studied simultaneously within a localized area of neural tissue. A prime example is the recent development of the Neuropixels probe, which consists of a high-channel count Si shank with continuous, dense, programmable recording sites (~1000/cm). Neuropixels probes have transformed neurophysiological studies in rodent models by enabling recording from large populations of neurons anywh