Social complexity can drive vocal complexity: Group size and information in chickadee calls in Carolina chickadees

2006 ◽  
Vol 119 (5) ◽  
pp. 3222-3222
Author(s):  
Todd Freeberg
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Vocal Complexity ◽  
Carolina Chickadees

Social Complexity Can Drive Vocal Complexity

2006 ◽  
Vol 17 (7) ◽  
pp. 557-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd M. Freeberg
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Vocal Complexity

Does social complexity link vocal complexity and cooperation?

2015 ◽  
Vol 156 (S1) ◽  
pp. 125-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd M. Freeberg ◽  
Indriķis Krams
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Vocal Complexity

scholarly journals Social complexity influences brain investment and neural operation costs in ants

2016 ◽  
Vol 283 (1841) ◽  
pp. 20161949 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Frances Kamhi ◽  
Wulfila Gronenberg ◽  
Simon K. A. Robson ◽  
James F. A. Traniello
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Brain Size ◽  
Collective Intelligence ◽  
Brain Evolution ◽  
Division Of Labour ◽  
Adaptive Behaviour ◽  
Oecophylla Smaragdina ◽  
Energetic Costs ◽  
Cognitive Demands

The metabolic expense of producing and operating neural tissue required for adaptive behaviour is considered a significant selective force in brain evolution. In primates, brain size correlates positively with group size, presumably owing to the greater cognitive demands of complex social relationships in large societies. Social complexity in eusocial insects is also associated with large groups, as well as collective intelligence and division of labour among sterile workers. However, superorganism phenotypes may lower cognitive demands on behaviourally specialized workers resulting in selection for decreased brain size and/or energetic costs of brain metabolism. To test this hypothesis, we compared brain investment patterns and cytochrome oxidase (COX) activity, a proxy for ATP usage, in two ant species contrasting in social organization. Socially complex Oecophylla smaragdina workers had larger brain size and relative investment in the mushroom bodies (MBs)—higher order sensory processing compartments—than the more socially basic Formica subsericea workers . Oecophylla smaragdina workers, however, had reduced COX activity in the MBs. Our results suggest that as in primates, ant group size is associated with large brain size. The elevated costs of investment in metabolically expensive brain tissue in the socially complex O. smaragdina , however, appear to be offset by decreased energetic costs.

scholarly journals Does Social Complexity Drive Vocal Complexity? Insights from the Two African Elephant Species

Animals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 3071
Author(s):  
Daniela Hedwig ◽  
Joyce Poole ◽  
Petter Granli
Keyword(s):  
Communication Systems ◽  
Social Complexity ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Reproductive Rate ◽  
African Elephant ◽  
African Elephants ◽  
Savanna Elephant ◽  
The Social ◽  
Forest Elephant ◽  
Vocal Complexity

The social complexity hypothesis (SCH) for communication states that the range and frequency of social interactions drive the evolution of complex communication systems. Surprisingly, few studies have empirically tested the SHC for vocal communication systems. Filling this gap is important because a co-evolutionary runaway process between social and vocal complexity may have shaped the most intricate communication system, human language. We here propose the African elephant Loxodonta spec. as an excellent study system to investigate the relationships between social and vocal complexity. We review how the distinct differences in social complexity between the two species of African elephants, the forest elephant L. cyclotis and the savanna elephant L. africana, relate to repertoire size and structure, as well as complex communication skills in the two species, such as call combination or intentional formant modulation including the trunk. Our findings suggest that Loxodonta may contradict the SCH, as well as other factors put forth to explain patterns of vocal complexity across species. We propose that life history traits, a factor that has gained little attention as a driver of vocal complexity, and the extensive parental care associated with a uniquely low and slow reproductive rate, may have led to the emergence of pronounced vocal complexity in the forest elephant despite their less complex social system compared to the savanna elephant. Conclusions must be drawn cautiously, however. A better understanding of vocal complexity in the genus Loxodonta will depend on continuing advancements in remote data collection technologies to overcome the challenges of observing forest elephants in their dense rainforest habitat, as well as the availability of directly comparable data and methods, quantifying both structural and contextual variability in the production of rumbles and other vocalizations in both species of African elephants.

scholarly journals Vocal information and the navigation of social decisions in bats: Is social complexity linked to vocal complexity?

2019 ◽  
Vol 34 (2) ◽  
pp. 322-331 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mirjam Knörnschild ◽  
Ahana Aurora Fernandez ◽  
Martina Nagy
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Social Decisions ◽  
Vocal Complexity

scholarly journals Linking social complexity and vocal complexity: a parid perspective

2012 ◽  
Vol 367 (1597) ◽  
pp. 1879-1891 ◽  
Author(s):  
Indrikis Krams ◽  
Tatjana Krama ◽  
Todd M. Freeberg ◽  
Cecilia Kullberg ◽  
Jeffrey R. Lucas
Keyword(s):  
Social Complexity ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Review Literature ◽  
Physiological Factors ◽  
Poecile Carolinensis ◽  
The Social ◽  
Complexity Hypothesis ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Benefits And Costs ◽  
Vocal Complexity

The Paridae family (chickadees, tits and titmice) is an interesting avian group in that species vary in important aspects of their social structure and many species have large and complex vocal repertoires. For this reason, parids represent an important set of species for testing the social complexity hypothesis for vocal communication—the notion that as groups increase in social complexity, there is a need for increased vocal complexity. Here, we describe the hypothesis and some of the early evidence that supported the hypothesis. Next, we review literature on social complexity and on vocal complexity in parids, and describe some of the studies that have made explicit tests of the social complexity hypothesis in one parid—Carolina chickadees, Poecile carolinensis . We conclude with a discussion, primarily from a parid perspective, of the benefits and costs of grouping and of physiological factors that might mediate the relationship between social complexity and changes in signalling behaviour.

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