Rhythmic perception, production and interactivity in harbour and grey seals

Comparative studies on rhythmic animal behaviour can help understand the evolutionary origins of rhythm cognition underlying many human behaviours, including speech (Kotz, Ravignani & Fitch, 2018) and conversational interaction (Pika, Wilkinson, Kendrick & Vernes, 2018). Pinnipeds are a particularly promising clade for comparative investigations in the vocal domain (Ravignani et al., 2016), showing remarkable vocal flexibility (Ralls et al., 1985; Reichmuth & Casey, 2014) as well as rhythmic capacities (Cook et al., 2013; Mathevon et al., 2017). The variability in these traits across species guides hypotheses from evolutionary neuroscience, that postulate mechanistic connections between vocal learning and rhythm (Kuypers, 1958a, 1958b; Jürgens, Kirzinger, & von Cramon, 1982; Patel & Iversen, 2014). In seal pups, who are born and weaned in large breeding colonies on land, vocal rhythmicity can be functionally explained by their socio-ecology: a pup calling for its mother's attention may avoid acoustic masking by vocalizing in turns with nearby conspecifics (Ravignani, 2018). Here we disentangle different aspects of seal pup rhythm cognition to better describe individual timing patterns in turn-taking choruses. We present data from four studies on harbour seals (Phoca vitulina) and grey seals (Halichoerus grypus), testing rhythm perception, production, and interactivity