Research interests

Animal acoustic communication, as human language, is primarily a social act. Also, it has been suggested that sociality may have driven the evolution of communicative complexity.

In contrast with human language, vocal communication in monkeys and apes, our closest living relatives, has long been described as rigid and strongly genetically determined. Nevertheless, in recent years, a growing number of studies have provided evidence of vocal flexibility under social influences in nonhuman primates.

My PhD research, conducted at EthoS lab in Rennes University (France), focused on the relationship between vocal complexity and social complexity. I used a comparative approach by studying three non-human primate species which differed by their contrasted social systems: red-capped mangabeys (Cercocebus torquatus), Campbell's monkeys (Cercopithecus campbelli), and de Brazza's monkeys (Cercopithecus neglectus). Vocal complexity was analyzed at several levels of the vocal repertoire, and my results highlighted a strong link between vocal variability and social factors.

Then, as a post-doctoral fellow overseas (Kyoto University, Japan & St-Andrew University, UK), I conducted several studies regarding various aspects of nonhuman primates' vocal communication, notably the conversational rules (e.g. call matching) governing vocal exchanges in Japanese macaques (Macaca fuscata), the vocal behaviour of wild Japanese macaque females during the mating season (field study in Japan), and the syntax and meaning of the morning duets versus predatory-induced songs produced by wild white-handed gibbons' (Hylobates lar) (field study in Thailand).

In recent years, I have shifted my research interests towards investigating vocal communication in humans from both an acoustic and a linguistic points of view.

At ENES lab in St-Etienne University, I have conducted a psycho-acoustic experiment designed to test the ability of humans (parents or non-parents) to perceive identity cues in babies' cries. My results revealed that the capacity to identify a newborn from their cries is independent of parenthood status and sex, but improved by experience in infant caregiving (auditory expertise) and exposure to own or experimentally-assigned baby (learning opportunity).

At LIDILEM lab in Grenoble University, I have been working on the project 'DyLNet' led by Aurélie Nardy & Eric Fleury (ANR-16-CE28-0013). The aim of 'DyLNet' project was to observe and characterize the relations between child socialization and oral language learning during the preschool period by means of an innovative multidisciplinary approach that combines work in the fields of language acquisition, sociolinguistics and network science. Our results regarding language skills matching and homophily in the social network are currently under analysis and publication.

At EthoS lab in Rennes University, I am currently conducting a research project within a maternity ward whose aim is to identify the acoustic signals that human newborns produce from birth, and which could be used as cues to their comfort/discomfort level. Such acoustic cues could, in the end, be used by caregivers (both parents and professionals) as acoustic indicators of newborns' immediate internal state, and thus help caregivers adjust their care practices according to the newborns' sensory perceptions.

Collaborations

Pr. Alban Lemasson (University of Rennes 1, France)

Pr. Catherine Blois-Heulin (University of Rennes 1, France)

Pr. Nobuo Masataka (Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan)

Dr. Hiroki Koda (Primate Research Institute, Kyoto University, Japan)

Pr. Klaus Zuberbühler (University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland & University of St-Andrews, UK)

Pr. Suchinda Malaivijitnond (Chulalongkorn University, Thailand)

Pr. Nicolas Mathevon (University of St-Etienne, France)

Dr. Florence Levréro (University of St-Etienne, France)

Pr. David Reby (University of Sussex, UK)

Dr. Aurélie Nardy (University of Grenoble Alpes, France)

Pr. Jean-Pierre Chevrot (University of Grenoble Alpes, France)

Pr. Eric Fleury (INRIA Paris, France)

Dr. Márton Karsai (INRIA - ENS Lyon, France / Central European University, Austria)

Dr. Martine Hausberger (CNRS / University of Rennes 1, France)

Dr. Séverine Henry (University of Rennes 1, France)