Great Ape Laughter Reveals a Hidden Origin of Human Speech
Researchers found the same evenly timed laugh rhythm in great apes and humans, and said human laughter became faster and more context-sensitive.
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3 Articles
Great ape laughter reveals a hidden origin of human speech
The rhythm of human laughter appears to have deep evolutionary roots shared with chimpanzees, bonobos, gorillas, and orangutans. That ancient pattern may offer one of the clearest clues yet to how the vocal control needed for human speech gradually evolved.
How tickling gorillas & human children helped scientists study the evolution of language
The research, published in the journal Communications Biology, compared laughter recordings from orangutans, gorillas, bonobos, chimpanzees and human children and found a constant rhythm.
The researchers analyzed recordings of laughter from four chimpanzees, three bonobos, two gorillas, four orangutans and four humans, measuring the time intervals between each burst of sound in a total of 140 laughter sequences. The recordings of the monkeys were made in their natural environments at zoos in Germany and Malaysia, while the monkeys were playing or being gently tickled by people who cared for them and were familiar to them.
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