Sensitivity of the human temporal voice areas to nonhuman primate vocalizations.

Chimpanzee vocalizations elicit significant bilateral anterior superior temporal gyrus activity in human temporal voice areas, highlighting phylogenetic and acoustic proximity effects.

• Why it matters: Understanding how the human brain processes nonhuman primate vocalizations can reveal shared evolutionary and acoustic features, filling a gap in voice processing research that has focused mainly on human sounds.
• What they did: Twenty-three participants listened to vocalizations from four primate species, with analyses regressing out acoustic parameters, revealing specific TVA activity for chimpanzee and macaque calls compared to other species.
• The result: Findings suggest certain TVA subregions respond primarily to vocalizations from phylogenetically and acoustically close primates, especially chimpanzees, advancing knowledge of cross-species vocal processing in humans.