Evidence map›Paper›PMID 27378834›Full record

ArticleFrontiers in neuroscience2016

The Indris Have Got Rhythm! Timing and Pitch Variation of a Primate Song Examined between Sexes and Age Classes.

Marco Gamba, Valeria Torti, Vittoria Estienne, Rose M Randrianarison, Daria Valente, Paolo Rovara, Giovanna Bonadonna, Olivier Friard, Cristina Giacoma

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in Frontiers in neuroscience, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 37 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
37citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

37 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Review
  3. Article
  4. The role of musical pitch in long-distance defensive signaling.Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences · 2025
    Review
  5. Article
  6. Article
  7. Article
  8. Isochrony in barks of Cape fur seal (Ecology and evolution · 2024
    Article
  9. Article
  10. Who you live with and what you duet for: a review of the function of primate duets in relation to their social organization.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2024
    Review
  11. Article
  12. Article
  13. Article
  14. Measuring rhythms of vocal interactions: a proof of principle in harbour seal pups.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
  15. Article
  16. Isochrony and rhythmic interaction in ape duetting.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2023
    Article
  17. Article
  18. Article
  19. Article
  20. Multilevel rhythms in multimodal communication.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021
    Review
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

9 authors.

Marco GambaDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino Torino, Italy.
Valeria TortiDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino Torino, Italy.
Vittoria EstienneDepartment of Primatology, Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology Leipzig, Germany.
Rose M RandrianarisonDépartement de Paléontologie et d'Anthropologie Biologique, Faculté des Sciences, Université d'Antananarivo Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Daria ValenteDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino Torino, Italy.
Paolo RovaraDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino Torino, Italy.
Giovanna BonadonnaDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino Torino, Italy.
Olivier FriardDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino Torino, Italy.
Cristina GiacomaDepartment of Life Sciences and Systems Biology, University of Torino Torino, Italy.

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

A crucial, common feature of speech and music is that they show non-random structures over time. It is an open question which of the other species share rhythmic abilities with humans, but in most cases the lack of knowledge about their behavioral displays prevents further studies. Indris are the only lemurs who sing. They produce loud howling cries that can be heard at several kilometers, in which all members of a group usually sing. We tested whether overlapping and turn-taking during the songs followed a precise pattern by analysing the temporal structure of the individuals' contribution to the song. We found that both dominants (males and females) and non-dominants influenced the onset timing one another. We have found that the dominant male and the dominant female in a group overlapped each other more frequently than they did with the non-dominants. We then focused on the temporal and frequency structure of particular phrases occurring during the song. Our results show that males and females have dimorphic inter-onset intervals during the phrases. Moreover, median frequencies of the unit emitted in the phrases also differ between the sexes, with males showing higher frequencies when compared to females. We have not found an effect of age on the temporal and spectral structure of the phrases. These results indicate that singing in indris has a high behavioral flexibility and varies according to social and individual factors. The flexible spectral structure of the phrases given during the song may underlie perceptual abilities that are relatively unknown in other non-human primates, such as the ability to recognize particular pitch patterns.

Indexed as

gender differenceslemursmusical abilitiespitch pattern recognitionsinging primates

Identifiers

PMID27378834
PMCPMC4908265

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.