A gibbon on helium showed researchers that the two parts of the ape's sound-making apparatus--the larynx and vocal tract--function independently, as in human singing. Sophie Bushwick reports.
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It?s too bad a gibbon can?t sing in the opera?these apes vocalize with the same techniques that sopranos use to bring down the house. A study in the American Journal of Physical Anthropology raised the curtain on gibbons? voices?with helium. [Hiroki Koda et al, Soprano singing in gibbons]
If you?ve ever inhaled helium, you know that it increases the rate of vibration of the vocal cords?which raises the pitch of your voice too. When researchers let a white-handed gibbon breathe helium-enriched air, the ape?s musical, penetrating call [normal gibbon call] turned into this [helium gibbon call].
As Scientific American?s Kate Wong reported last week, these vocal changes told researchers that the two parts of a gibbon?s sound-making apparatus?the larynx that produces a call and the vocal tract that filters and modifies it?function independently, just like in humans. And the same technique that lets gibbons project their melodious cries through a dense forest also helps operatic sopranos fill a room with sound [singing sound].
?Sophie Bushwick
[The above text is a transcript of this podcast]
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