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Individual recognition through olfactory-auditory matching in lemurs.

Publication ,  Journal Article
Kulahci, IG; Drea, CM; Rubenstein, DI; Ghazanfar, AA
Published in: Proceedings. Biological sciences
June 2014

Individual recognition can be facilitated by creating representations of familiar individuals, whereby information from signals in multiple sensory modalities become linked. Many vertebrate species use auditory-visual matching to recognize familiar conspecifics and heterospecifics, but we currently do not know whether representations of familiar individuals incorporate information from other modalities. Ring-tailed lemurs (Lemur catta) are highly visual, but also communicate via scents and vocalizations. To investigate the role of olfactory signals in multisensory recognition, we tested whether lemurs can recognize familiar individuals through matching scents and vocalizations. We presented lemurs with female scents that were paired with the contact call either of the female whose scent was presented or of another familiar female from the same social group. When the scent and the vocalization came from the same individual versus from different individuals, females showed greater interest in the scents, and males showed greater interest in both the scents and the vocalizations, suggesting that lemurs can recognize familiar females via olfactory-auditory matching. Because identity signals in lemur scents and vocalizations are produced by different effectors and often encountered at different times (uncoupled in space and time), this matching suggests lemurs form multisensory representations through a newly recognized sensory integration underlying individual recognition.

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Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

June 2014

Volume

281

Issue

1784

Start / End Page

20140071

Related Subject Headings

  • Recognition, Psychology
  • Olfactory Perception
  • Male
  • Lemur
  • Female
  • Auditory Perception
  • Animals, Laboratory
  • Animals
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences
 

Citation

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ICMJE
MLA
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Kulahci, I. G., Drea, C. M., Rubenstein, D. I., & Ghazanfar, A. A. (2014). Individual recognition through olfactory-auditory matching in lemurs. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 281(1784), 20140071. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0071
Kulahci, Ipek G., Christine M. Drea, Daniel I. Rubenstein, and Asif A. Ghazanfar. “Individual recognition through olfactory-auditory matching in lemurs.Proceedings. Biological Sciences 281, no. 1784 (June 2014): 20140071. https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2014.0071.
Kulahci IG, Drea CM, Rubenstein DI, Ghazanfar AA. Individual recognition through olfactory-auditory matching in lemurs. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2014 Jun;281(1784):20140071.
Kulahci, Ipek G., et al. “Individual recognition through olfactory-auditory matching in lemurs.Proceedings. Biological Sciences, vol. 281, no. 1784, June 2014, p. 20140071. Epmc, doi:10.1098/rspb.2014.0071.
Kulahci IG, Drea CM, Rubenstein DI, Ghazanfar AA. Individual recognition through olfactory-auditory matching in lemurs. Proceedings Biological sciences. 2014 Jun;281(1784):20140071.
Journal cover image

Published In

Proceedings. Biological sciences

DOI

EISSN

1471-2954

ISSN

0962-8452

Publication Date

June 2014

Volume

281

Issue

1784

Start / End Page

20140071

Related Subject Headings

  • Recognition, Psychology
  • Olfactory Perception
  • Male
  • Lemur
  • Female
  • Auditory Perception
  • Animals, Laboratory
  • Animals
  • 41 Environmental sciences
  • 31 Biological sciences