The Singing Rat Conversations
Alston’s singing rats ( Scotinomys teguina) are a very little known species of rodent that can be found in many Central American forests. A group of American scientists studied their communication, which has similarities to human conversations. The results may have applications for the study and treatment of brain damage that affects speech.
Meet the singing rats
Singing rats are small rodents that weigh about 13 grams. These animals have dark fur and a short tail compared to other similar rodents, in addition to having a very strong and characteristic odor. But what really characterizes the singing rats is their remarkable singing, which gives this species its name.
Singing rats are animals that, just as their name suggests, emit quite curious calls, whose variety and duration allowed them to be called songs. These animals are capable of even ultrasonic vocalizations.
But what really stands out in this species is the context and the way these animals use singing. When humans converse, there is a shift in speech : while one interlocutor speaks, the other listens and then responds. Until then, so good.
However, while this may seem obvious, there are actually few animal species in which this can be clearly observed; therefore, finding study models to understand how humans converse is tricky.
This is not the case with these rodents: among the singing rats, the males challenge each other in singing duels in which both rats maintain a kind of conversation, taking turns to emit this remarkable chant.
Both males and females of this species emit these long-lasting sounds, which is why they have been categorized as chants, combining ultrasounds with calls that can be heard by humans.
On other occasions, several species of titi monkeys have been used to study conversations between humans. However, now this study has decided to use the singing rats as a model.
A study on these rodents
The New York University School of Medicine published an article in the journal Science . This study suggests that the rats singers can be a model to study how more than 100 muscles are coordinated so quickly to respond during conversations.
These mechanisms seem vital to studying brain damage or diseases such as autism, which prevent patients from having fluid conversations. The secret may lie in the brains of these animals, which are capable of maintaining vocal control very similar to that of the human species.
This ability, also seen in species such as crickets, primates or birds, is similar to what humans possess. The study, carried out through electromyography, will allow a better orientation of studies on the speech circuit in human beings.
