3 – 6. On Vocal Fish
3 & 4. Science magazine articles
5 & 6. Journal papers
http://www.livescience.com/5008-human-speech-traced-talking-fish.html
Midshipman fish come in three varieties: females, Type I males and the smaller Type II males. All three types are vocal, emitting short grunts to communicate with one another during the mating season – Don’t really understand how this is related? Maybe it’s a link between hearing (perception) and speech (production)?
Development of the midshipman fish→ development of different systems of muscles and tissues for vocal communication→underwater origins of vocal communication→ evolution of vocal communication and the neurobiology of hearing.
Whether fish were the first animals to evolve some common non-vocal gesture
Male midshipman fish’s brain stimulates muscles surrounding the swim bladder sending electrochemical messages to ear hair cells + bigger distances between their swim bladders=desensitize their own hearing before they hum → avoid hurting their own hearing→ proposal of related acoustic strategies
This one seems to be a very basic form of communication, unlike the more complex ones (vervet monkeys, honeybees). Or maybe it could also be that there isn’t enough data to show higher levels of complexity.
5 & 6. Original article for 3 & 4: Bass, A.H., E.H. Gilland, R. Baker. 2008. Evolutionary origins for social vocalization in a vertebrate hindbrain-spinal compartment. Science 321:417-421.
Review of original article (another journal article): Margoliash, Daniel & Melina E. Hale (2008) Vertebrate vocalizations. Science 321:347-348
Basically, the research finding was the vocal motor neurons in vertebrates in three
species of batracoid fish — the Gulf toadfish, Oyster toadfish & Midshipman fish — were localized to a region that spans the rostral spinal cord and rhombomere 8, i.e. a shared region —> ‘vertebrates share a common hindbrain and spinal cord organization for vocalizations’.
- Chapter 2 “Animals’ from Harley, T. A. (2009). Talking the talk: Language, psychology and science. Psychology Press. pp.31-48. <= was one of the posted forum readings
Prevarication
“Our ability to talk about things, events and existence we cannot be sure of. These are not verifiable.” I.e. We can lie. – From Alice’s notes. Cite and rephrase.