Upcoming: The Naming of Nonhuman Primates: Vocal Labeling of Others by Marmoset Monkeys.
September 13 2025, 16:00 GMT/ 12:00 EST/ 09:00 PST (4 pm GMT/ 12 pm EST/ 9 am PST)
The Naming of Nonhuman Primates: Vocal Labeling of Others by Marmoset Monkeys.
Humans, dolphins, and elephants are the only known species that vocally label their conspecifics. It remains unclear whether nonhuman primates share this ability.
David Omer and his team recorded spontaneous “phee-call” dialogues between pairs of marmoset monkeys. Omer’s laboratory discovered that marmosets use these calls to vocally label their conspecifics. Moreover, they respond more consistently and correctly to calls that are specifically directed at them. Analysis of calls from multiple monkeys revealed that family members use similar calls and acoustic features to label others and perform vocal learning.
These findings shed light on the complexities of social vocalizations among nonhuman primates and suggest that marmoset vocalizations may provide a model for understanding aspects of human language, thereby offering new insights into the evolution of social communication.
About the speaker
Dr. David Omer is a neuroscientist specializing in the study of neural circuits that underlie complex behaviors. He earned his Ph.D. under the mentorship of Professor Amiram Grinvald at the Weizmann Institute of Science. Following his doctoral work, he completed a postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Nikos Logothetis at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics and another with Professor Nachum Ulanovsky back at the Weizmann Institute.
During his postdoctoral research with Professor Ulanovsky, Dr. Omer made a significant discovery that hippocampal place cells represent not only an individual's own position in space but also the positions of others. This groundbreaking finding expanded the understanding of how the brain encodes social spatial information.
In 2019, Dr. Omer joined the Edmond and Lily Safra Center for Brain Sciences as a faculty member, where he established Israel's first laboratory to use the common marmoset as an animal model. His laboratory focuses on studying the physiology of brain networks involved in cognitive processes that enable humans to navigate both physical and social spaces. His research has already yielded significant discoveries, including the first demonstration of vocal labeling of others by nonhuman primates—a finding that challenges previous notions about the limitations of nonhuman primate communication. Additionally, his work explores the neural evolution of vocal communication and language in nonhuman primates.
This talk will be hosted on Zoom, please register to receive a calendar invitation including link to join.
