ANIMAL COMMUNICATION- Małgorzata Szulc-Kurpaska

Bees' communication

The dancing conveys info about location of food source, its quality and its distance from the hive.

• food within 5 metres - round dance

• food within 5-20 metres - sickle dance

• food more than 20 metres - tail wagging dance

Birds' communications

• Calls - short bursts of sounds and simple patterns of notes

• Calls:

• warn of predators

• coordinate flocking and flight activity

• express aggression

• accompany nesting and feeding behaviour

• Songs - lengthy, elaborate patterns of mostly pitched sounds

• to announce and delimit the territory

• to attract a mate

Adaptations for speech in humans

• the teeth

• even in height and form an unbroken barrier,

• they are upright, not slanting outwards,

• the top and bottom sets meet

• the lips

• small and narrow

• they can open and shut rapidly

• with intricate interlacing of muscles

• the tongue

• thick, muscular and mobile

• may assume different positions in the oral cavity

• the larynx

• simpler in structure than in other primates

• streamlining and simplification

• the lungs

• breathing in is accelerated

• breathing out is slowed down

• the brain

• heavier (300 grams at birth, 1000 grams at two years of age)

• with more surface folding of the cortex

The difference between human and chimp brains is a qualitative, not a quantitative one.

• The brain

• The brain stem

-it controls breathing

-it controls heart beating

• The cerebrum

-thought

-decision

Speech centre	Right handers	Left handers
Left hemisphere	90%	70-90%
Right hemisphere	10%	10-30%

-emotion

-character

Adaptations for speech in humans

• The left hemisphere

-Broca's area (speech production)

-Wernicke's area (speech perception)

the left hemisphere is better at processing linguistic signals

• The right hemisphere

• understanding jokes

• understanding metaphors

• Intonation

• can name objects but cannot cope with syntax

Brain lateralisation

• Even in foetuses some areas of the left hemisphere are bigger than the right

• In humans much more space is allotted to the area controlling the hands and mouth.

• Spatio-temporal intelligence are largely independent of language and associated with the right hemisphere.

Multiplicity of integrative processes

In speech at least 3 processes are taking place simultaneously:

• sounds are actually being uttered;

• phrases are being activated in their phonetic form ready for use;

• the rest of the sentence is being planned.

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