Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Audrey Dureux
Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Alessandro Zanini
Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Ravi S. Menon
Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Kyle M. Gilbert
Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada
Stefan Everling
Centre for Functional and Metabolic Mapping, Robarts Research Institute, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; Department of Physiology and Pharmacology, University of Western Ontario, London, ON, Canada; Corresponding author
Summary: Vocalizations play an important role in the daily life of primates and likely form the basis of human language. Functional imaging studies have demonstrated that listening to voices activates a fronto-temporal voice perception network in human participants. Here, we acquired whole-brain ultrahigh-field (9.4 T) fMRI in awake marmosets (Callithrix jacchus) and demonstrate that these small, highly vocal New World primates possess a similar fronto-temporal network, including subcortical regions, that is activated by the presentation of conspecific vocalizations. The findings suggest that the human voice perception network has evolved from an ancestral vocalization-processing network that predates the separation of New and Old World primates.
