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Books Received
Primate-Science / PrimateLit


THE DESIGN OF ANIMAL COMMUNICATION



Edited by Marc D. Hauser and Mark Konishi
The MIT Press, 1999

FROM THE BACK COVER



When animals, including humans, communicate, they convey information and 
express their perceptions of the world. Because different organisms are 
able to produce and perceive different signals, the animal world contains a 
diversity of communication systems. Based on the approach laid out in the 
1950s by Nobel laureate Nikolaas Tinbergen, this book looks at animal 
communication from the four perspectives of mechanisms, ontogeny, function, 
and phylogeny.

The book's great strength is its broad comparative perspective, which 
enables the reader to appreciate the diversity of solutions to particular 
problems of signal design and perception. For example, although the neural 
circuitry underlying the production of acoustic signals is different in 
frogs, songbirds, bats, and humans, each involves a set of dedicated 
pathways designed to solve particular problems of communicative efficiency. 
Such comparative findings form the basis of a conceptual framework for 
understanding the mechanisms underlying communication systems and their 
evolution.

Marc D. Hauser is Professor in the Department of Psychology and Program in 
Neuroscience, Harvard University. He is the author of The Evolution of 
Communication (MIT Press, 1996). Mark Konishi is Bing Professor of 
Behavioral Biology at the California Institute of Technology.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Preface    ix

I. MECHANISMS OF 
COMMUNICATION		 	 1

1. Vocal Communication in Xenopus laevis			 9
Darcy B. Kelley and Martha L. Tobias

2. The Motor Basis of Vocal Performance in 
Songbirds		 37
Roderick A. Suthers

3. The Anatomy and Timing of Vocal Learning in 
Birds	 				 63
Fernando Nottebohm

4. The Dance Language of Honeybees: Recent Findings and Problems        111
Axel Michelsen

5. Processing Species-specific Calls by Combination-sensitive Neurons in
an Echolocating Bat 					 			 																		133
Jagmeet S. Kanwal

6. A Cellular Basis for Reading Minds from Faces and Actions            159
David I. Perrett

7. Neural Systems for Recognizing Emotions in Humans                    187
Ralph Adolphs

8. The Neuroendocrine Basis of Seasonal Changes in Vocal Behavior
among Songbirds				213 
Gregory F. Ball

9. Testosterone, Aggression, and Communication: Ecological Bases of
Endocrine Phenomena					 255
John C. Wingfield, Jerry D. Jacobs, Kiran Soma, Donna L. Maney,
Kathleen Hunt, Deborah Wisti-Peterson, Simone Meddle,
Marilyn Ramenofsky, and Kimberly Sullivan

II. ONTOGENY OF 
COMMUNICATION		285

10. On Innateness: Are Sparrow Songs "Learned" or 
"Innate"?					 293
Peter Marler

11. Making Ecological Sense of Song Development by Songbirds    319

12. Song- and Order-selective Auditory Responses Emerge in Neurons of the
Songbird Anterior Forebrain during Vocal Learning				343
Allison J. Doupe and Michele M. Solis


13. Genetics of Canary Song Learning: Innate Mechanisms and Other
Neurobiological Considerations				369
Paul C. Mundinger

14. Production, Usage, and Response in Nonhuman Primate Vocal
Development 		391
Robert M. Seyfarth and Dorothy L. Cheney

15. Speech, Language, and the Brain: Innate Preparation for Learning    419
Patricia K. Kuhl

III. EVOLUTION OF 
COMMUNICATION                                                 451

16. Signal Evolution in Electric Communication                          461
Carl D. Hopkins

17. Complementary Explanations for Existing Phenotypes in an Acoustic
Communication System                                            493
Andrew H. Bass, Deana Bodnar, and Margaret A. Marchaterre

18. Reproductive Character Displacement and Other Sources of Selection
on Acoustic Communication Systems                                                       515
H. Carl Gerhardt

19. Phylogenetic Inference and the Evolution of Communication in
Tungara Frogs 	 					 535
Michael J. Ryan and A. Stanley Rand

20. Categorical Perception of Behaviorally Relevant Stimuli
by Crickets 							 559
Robert A. Wyttenbach and Ronald R. Hoy

21. Functions of Song Variation in Song 
Sparrows                                577
William A. Searcy and Stephen Nowicki

22. The Evolution of a Lopsided Brain: Asymmetries Underlying
Facial and Vocal Expressions in Primates                                597
Marc D. Hauser

23. Mechanisms Underlying the Vocalizations of Nonhuman Primates        629
Dorothy L. Cheney and Robert M. Seyfarth

24. Communication and Tool Use in Chimpanzees: Cultural and Social
Contexts 					645
Tetsuro Matsuzawa

List of Contributors    673
Name Index    675
Subject Index    689

ISBN: 0262582236  (paper)  $40.00 USD

WHERE TO ORDER:

The MIT Press - Massachusetts Institute of Technology
5 Cambridge Center
Cambridge, MA 02142-1493

Contact:
David Cecere, The MIT Press
Phone: (617) 258-0603
Email: dcecere@mit.edu

Website: http://mitpress.mit.edu
Email: mitpress-orders@mit.edu
Phone: (800) 405-1619


Posted Date: 8/18/2003 

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