Just as humans unconsciously pick up words, accents and speech habits from the people around them, marmoset monkeys make their calls sound more and more alike when they bond together. This curious discovery reveals the evolutionary roots of the mechanisms that support social learning, cooperation and communication.
Wolves use their urine to communicate with each other. A study supported by the SNSF looked at the reactions of a pack to the marking of an intruder. This is a first step towards understanding what attracts or repels canids.
UNIGE scientists have discovered that children with autism exhibit different brain patterns depending on their language abilities. This discovery could improve prediction of their language development.
A team from the University of Geneva, Pasteur Institute and the NCCR Evolving Language shows that virtually all animal species have been vocalizing in a common rhythm for hundreds of millions of years.
The Coller Dolittle Challenge for Two-Way Interspecies Communication has revealed the shortlist for its second annual US$100,000 prize – with a US$10 million Grand Prize on offer for the researchers that unlock the secret of two-way interspecies communication. The laureates include a team of NCCR researchers studying the similarities between bonobo and human communication.
Languages are diverse: thousands are spoken worldwide, and they differ widely in the structures they use. Human DNA variation preserves the history of populations and individuals. Are these two dimensions of human diversity related? Does the diversity of languages correlate with the diversity of their speakers?
Welcome to the Polyvox Podcast, a trilingual podcast where researchers from the NCCR Evolving Language talk about their latest discoveries, their work and their career path! Between linguistics, neurosciences, animal cognition and more topics, you’ll surely find something to your taste. In the first episode, discover the research of Théophane Piette!
Syntax allows us to combine sounds into sequences with almost infinite meanings. How long ago did this capacity appear? Studies from researchers of the University of Neuchâtel, the University of Lyon 1 and the NCCR Evolving Language investigated this trait in sooty mangabey monkeys.
How do we know that a sentence was said by a woman? How do we know that what she told us was a question? Researchers from the University of Zurich and the NCCR Evolving Language described the complex processes happening in our brain, that allow us to understand the information contained in pitch.
Sebastian Krapp likes to dig deep into the foundations of science. Now a newly appointed lecturer in the Mathematical Foundations of Language at the University of Zurich, and a member of the NCCR Evolving Language, his work provides NCCR research projects with sturdy proof-of-concepts. His career illustrates the importance of interdisciplinarity in science, to have a full picture.