Sharing our perspectives on timely topics
Who was kanzi the famous bonobo
Am 18. März 2025 starb der berühmte Bonobo Kanzi im Alter von 44 Jahren. Aber wer war Kanzi? Tauchen Sie ein in seine faszinierende Lebensgeschichte und erfahren Sie mehr von der Begegnung unserer Forschenden mit ihm!
Behind the scenes of research
Discover the backstage of research at the NCCR Evolving Language with Victoria, intern with us during the month of December! After discussing their work and background with researchers Alexis Hervais-Adelman and Marion Bouffier, Victoria has put together a summary for you.
Au coeur des expériences en neuroscience
Découvrez le témoignage d’une élève en classe de 11ème en stage au NCCR Evolving Language sur le campus de Genève qui décrit deux expériences d’un chercheur qu’elle a pu observer.
A roadmap to gender in language
Gender and language are inextricably linked, in various ways. Together with experts from the fields of linguistics, psychology and neurolinguistics, we tried to disentangle this topic. Follow us on a journey to discover the origins, present, and future of gender in languages.
Emmental and AI
AI innovations like the chatbot ChatGPT are enthusiastically celebrated and they trigger fears. Ethical discussions on AI should never revolve around the technology alone, says bioethicist Samia Hurst. Above all, it is important that the social, political and economic frameworks in which they are used are right.
Silicon brains
Valentina Borghesani is exploring how meaning is created in our brains. To do so, she works with aphasia patients, but increasingly also with AI language models that can be used […]
Potent, but only moderately intelligent
How smart is ChatGPT really? Prof. Martin Volk and Prof. Paola Merlo, Researchers of the NCCR Evolving Language, are testing the chatbot and developing their own smart language models that […]
When our emotions go digital
Researchers from the University of Lausanne and the EPFL are calling on the Swiss population to annotate emojis. The study aims to unravel the way in which we share our emotions via instant messaging. This is an innovative research topic that is particularly interesting for the preservation of Switzerland’s linguistic heritage.
Marketing, money and technology: behind the scenes of the GPT-3
Over the past 6 months, GPT-3, a language model using deep learning to produce human-like text, has hit the headlines. Some of the articles had even been written by GPT-3 itself. Among other terms, the machine has been described as “stunning”, a “better writer than most humans” but also a bit “frightening”. From poetry to human-like conversation, its capacities appear infinite… but are they really? How does GPT-3 work and what does it say about the future of artificial intelligence?
Want more? discover below some papers "in a nutshell"
Associating a sound with the object it refers to
A team of researchers from the University of Neuchâtel studied the ability to associate a new sound with an object, amidst a noisy but familiar environment. This cognitive faculty of rapid association is attested in humans, as well as domesticated animals like cats and dogs. This new research shows that neither gorillas nor orangutans, though they are primates like us, make use of this so-called “fast mapping” ability.
Recognising the behaviour of chimpanzees: let artificial intelligence do the work!
To study the behaviour of chimpanzees in a non-intrusive fashion, a team of researchers from the University of Neuchâtel and Idiap Research Institute, in Martigny, members of the NCCR Evolving Language, have proposed a new approach based on artificial intelligence (AI), to automatically analyse primate videos.
Baby-talk – a human superpower?
Humans from different cultures speak to their children using a form of speech known as “child-directed speech”, or “baby talk”. Though to us, it may seem natural to communicate directly with our little ones, it appears that this characteristic is far from prevalent in non-human great apes, new research on the cover of the journal Science Advances shows.
Monkeys, ChatGPT, and Us
What do monkeys, ChatGPT, and we have in common? According to Quentin Gallot, a PhD candidate at the University of Neuchâtel and researcher at NCCR Evolving Language, they all possess extraordinary predictive abilities that manifest in similarities in their communication systems.
Bonobos Combine Calls in Similar Ways to Human Language
Bonobos create complex and meaningful combinations of calls resembling the word combinations of humans. In this study, researchers at the University of Zurich and Harvard University challenge long-held assumptions about what makes human communication unique and suggest that key aspects of language are evolutionary ancient.
Great Apes Track Subject-Object Relationships the way humans do
When observing someone interact with something, humans and apes alternate attention between the two subjects. Great apes track events with their eyes in the same way that humans do, according to a study published on Tuesday in the open-access journal PLOS biology by Vanessa Wilson from the University of Neuchatel, Switzerland, and colleagues.
Grammar lessons with olive colobus monkeys
The olive colobus, a discreet primate from the forests of the Ivory Coast, surprises by the richness of its vocal communication. According to a study by the University of Neuchâtel and the NCCR Evolving Language, despite its limited vocal repertoire, this little monkey is able to transmit a variety of information by combining its calls according to precise rules!
Decoding the structure of marmoset call sequences
According to scientists from the University of Zurich and the NCCR Evolving Language, some aspects of language may not be as unique as previously thought. In a new paper, the team of linguists and biologists demonstrate common marmosets are capable of combining more than two calls, with hierarchical rules – something previously believed to be impossible for animals.
Great leaders listen: Democratic travelling decisions in gorillas
Western gorillas travel in cohesive groups. To stay together, they need to coordinate when and where to go. Despite the silverback being the dominant and most powerful individual in the group, researchers from the University of Neuchatel and of the Museum National d’Histoire Naturelle observed that all the individuals seem to participate in the decision-making process.
When dogs and humans find a common language
Humans and dogs have been birds of a feather for millennia. But how can such distant species understand each other? A recent study published in PLOS Biology by researchers from the University of Geneva and the Hearing Institute, reveals that the pair meets halfway between their differences to communicate together.
Behind the optimization of human language: what is the life cycle of words with identical consonants?
Is there a reason behind the structure of the words we use? Linguist Chundra Cathcart from the University of Zurich and the NCCR Evolving Language investigated a new hypothesis that could explain the relative fewness of words with identical consonants.
Great apes and humans perceive events in a similar way
This is an agents’ world. Through a transspecies study, researchers from the University of Neuchâtel and NCCR Evolving Language have discovered that great apes could have a similar perception of events as humans. This hints at an ancestral origin of syntax features that are universal in human languages, according to Sarah Brocard and her team.
Cultural Networks of Central African Hunter-Gatherers Have Ancient Origin
Extensive social networks between different hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo Basin existed long before agriculture arrived in the region. This continent-wide exchange preserved a cultural diversity that evolved thousands of years ago, as researchers from the University of Zurich show based on musical instruments, specialized vocabulary and genetic information.
Setting an example for genetic research with indigenous populations
Can genetic research with indigenous populations be more ethically conducted? This is what Chiara Barbieri and her team believed when starting their work with the Mapuche community, one of the 10 recognized indigenous groups of Chile. In a recent paper, the group reported on this experience to share insights and promote transparent and inclusive science.
“Who is calling?” A novel algorithm to identify individual marmosets based on their call
Who’s calling? Marmosets are highly social and vocal monkeys, but analyzing these complex communication signals can be tricky. Fortunately, a team of NCCR researchers headed by Prof. Judith M. Burkart has found a solution to this.
Tracing Chile’s Indigenous Roots Through Genetics and Linguistics
How do today’s indigenous communities of South America trace back to the history of human migration and contact in the continent? An international team including NCCR members from the UZH has worked to reconstruct the legacy of Chile’s largest indigenous community, the Mapuche, thanks to genetics and linguistics.
Our social interactions begin at a young age
Children demonstrate early in life social skills and a strong desire to interact with their peers. They engage in social interactions more often than our closest relatives, the great apes, says a study led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego and the University of Neuchâtel.
New EEG evidence on sentence production
Some languages require less neural activity than others. But these are not necessarily the ones we would imagine. In a study published today in the journal PLOS Biology, researchers at the University of Zurich have shown that languages that are often considered “easy” actually require an enormous amount of work from our brains.
Bonobos are sensitive to joint commitments
Bonobos, when abruptly interrupted in a social activity with another bonobo, resume it, as soon as the interruption is over, with the same partner.
Dwarf mongooses may combine units in order to create new meanings
Dwarf mongooses seem to produce a complex call that may be a combination of distinct call units.