Innovations in human and non-human animal communities

• Grant number: 18/18900-1
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - SPEC Program
• Start date: March 01, 2022
• End date: February 28, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Shigeru Miyagawa
• Grantee: Shigeru Miyagawa
• Host Institution: Instituto de Biociências (IB). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Pesquisadores principais: Carlos Arturo Navas Iannini ; Guilherme Alves Lepski
• Associated researchers: Analia Leonora Arevalo ; Anderson Almeida da Silva ; Astolfo Gomes de Mello Araujo ; Bruce Arlan Bradley ; Catherine Robb Bevier ; Cilene Aparecida Nunes Rodrigues ; Eduardo Benedicto Ottoni ; Fabio Parenti ; Guilherme Alves Lepski ; Maria Mercedes Martinez Okumura ; Tiago Falótico
• Associated research grant(s): 25/08514-0 - INNOVA SPEC Symposium 2025: Cross-disciplinary approaches to animal communication, language, and culture, AO.R
• Associated scholarship(s): 25/10229-2 - LANGUAGE ASSESSMENT DURING BRAIN SURGERY FOR TUMORS UNDER LOCAL ANESTHESIA (MINI INTRAOPERATIVE LANGUAGE TEST - MILT), BP.DD; 24/12758-0 - Electrophysiological signal processing in animals and humans, BP.TT; 24/15994-6 - The relationship between dexterity, hand anatomy, cognition and language evolution, BP.IC; + associated scholarships 24/15477-1 - Scientific journalism pratices for the public communication of science - a dialog based on the processes and results oh the "Innovations in Human and Non-Human Communities" project, BP.JC; 24/01237-9 - Analysis of the unintentional production of fragments and flakes during the use of lithic tools by capuchin monkeys from two populations, BP.MS; 24/12435-6 - The Neuroscience of Frog Communication, BP.PD; 24/13101-4 - Integration based methodology for neurophysiological studies of anuran vocalization, BP.IC; 24/08986-7 - Technical Support to the Project Innovations in Human and Non-human Animal Communities, BP.TT; 23/17520-9 - The neurophysiology of syntactic structure building, BP.PD; 23/12446-5 - Frog vocalization and the E-system of language, BP.PD; 23/03196-5 - The grammar of prehistoric non-figurative representations, BP.PD; 22/13788-4 - Technical Support to the Project Innovations in Human and Non-human Animal Communities, BP.TT; 22/14407-4 - Functional referentiality and its implication for the identification of sound-meaning pairings in non-human primate vocal behavior, BP.IC - associated scholarships

Abstract

The proposed project, Innovations in human and non-human animal communities, aims to reconstruct the evolutionary history of three allegedly human-specific cognitive abilities, namely: linguistic competence, symbolic activities, and sophisticated tools. More specifically, this project seeks to understand the evolution of the cognitive underpinnings underlying each of these innovations, by looking for antecedents in nature that could account for their development in a relatively short evolutionary time. The core question we wish to pose is: are there evolutionary precursors that, functioning together in some fashion, could have led to the development of cognitive capacities that gave rise to the emergence of an intricate language faculty, symbolic reasoning, and elaborate tool manufacturing? By addressing this question, we investigate whether the evolution of such cognitive proclivities and the differences they had put "between man and the higher animals" are in fact "one of degree and not of kind," as Darwin initially suggested (1871). The answer to this question necessarily involves investigation across a number of disciplines working closely together. While many attempts have been made to tackle such matter from a cross-disciplinary perspective, the approach we undertake in this proposal is unparalleled in the unusually large interdisciplinary team we have brought together, with specialists from fields encompassing linguistics, primatology, archaeology, physiology, evolutionary biology, and paleoanthropology. Each discipline will be committed to a common goal of finding the solutions needed to bring understanding to the difficult issues related to the evolution of human cognitive capacity. To solve one of Darwin's most intricate evolutionary puzzles, we will look closely at each of these cognitive traits as innovations in early modern humans. For each innovation, the specific questions we wish to pursue are: (i) how did it arise in modern humans and (ii) what antecedents, if any, are there in non-human primate and other non-human animal species? We will look for ways in which to close the immense cognitive gap by examining these innovations over a large arc of the evolution, seeking commonalities across a broad range of species. (AU)

Scientific publications

(6)

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

MIYAGAWA, SHIGERU; DESALLE, ROB; NOBREGA, VITOR AUGUSTO; NITSCHKE, REMO; OKUMURA, MERCEDES; TATTERSALL, IAN. Linguistic capacity was present in the Homo sapiens population 135 thousand years ago. FRONTIERS IN PSYCHOLOGY, v. 16, p. 7-pg., 2025-03-11. (23/03196-5, 18/18900-1)

HILL, VIRGINIA; MIYAGAWA, SHIGERU. The commitment of rhetorical questions. GLOSSA-A JOURNAL OF GENERAL LINGUISTICS, v. 9, n. 1, p. 1-pg., 2024-02-02. (18/18900-1)

SANTOS, GIOVANNA OLIVEIRA; AREVALO, ANALIA L.; HERRON, TIMOTHY J.; CURRAN, BRIAN C.; LEPSKI, GUILHERME; DRONKERS, NINA F.; BALDO, JULIANA V.. Voxel-Based Lesion Analysis of Ideomotor Apraxia. BRAIN SCIENCES, v. 14, n. 9, p. 13-pg., 2024-09-01. (18/18900-1)

VALENCA, TATIANE; CARDOSO, EMILIANE; FALOTICO, TIAGO. Predatory attack on a bearded capuchin monkey by a Boa constrictor. PRIMATES, v. N/A, p. 5-pg., 2025-04-15. (18/18900-1)

LUNCZ, LYDIA V.; SLANIA, NORA E.; ALMEIDA-WARREN, KATARINA; CARVALHO, SUSANA; FALOTICO, TIAGO; MALAIVIJITNOND, SUCHINDA; ARROYO, ADRIAN; DE LA TORRE, IGNACIO; PROFFITT, TOMOS. Tool skill impacts the archaeological evidence across technological primates. SCIENTIFIC REPORTS, v. 14, n. 1, p. 11-pg., 2024-07-17. (18/01292-9, 18/18900-1)

FALOTICO, TIAGO; VALENCA, TATIANE; VERDERANE, MICHELE P.; SANTANA, BEATRIZ C.; SIRIANNI, GIULIA. Mapping nut-cracking in a new population of wild capuchin monkeys (Sapajus libidinosus) at Ubajara National Park, Brazil. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PRIMATOLOGY, v. 86, n. 4, p. 17-pg., 2024-01-15. (19/00716-2, 20/04478-6, 19/10155-8, 18/01292-9, 18/18900-1)