Abstract
What we hear, feel, see, smell and taste is strongly influenced by perceptual biases. These biases create a difference between the physical sensory input and our perception thereof. Whilst certain biases are shaped by personal experience, others seem to be universal in humans, such as our tendency to perceive a ticking clock as ‘tick-tock’ and never as ‘tock-tick’. These intriguing but poorly understood abilities of the human brain can be seriously affected in conditions such as psychiatric and aging-related diseases. To understand such biases, we must understand its evolution. Here I propose that, what may appear to be flaws in sensory perception, are actually advantageous adaptations that guide perception to focus on the most relevant information and find patterns. The question here is whether biases that aid language and music perception are uniquely human or whether they are present in other species and might be fundamental, shared cognitive traits. To study this hypothesis, I will perform a unique comparative study on two bird species, zebra finches and budgerigars, and two primates, marmosets and humans. Specifically, this means that I will expose the subjects to rhythmic strings of sounds with variation in duration and pitch patterns. I will then assess how they perceive these sounds and which biases alter this perception (objective 1&2). Additionally, I will assess whether acoustic experiences alter biases in auditory perception (objective 3). Together, these studies will result in a structural, systematic comparison of pattern perception abilities throughout different animal groups, which is essential to understand the role of biases in our perception. This unique comparative project will reveal to what extent animals share perceptual biases and give insight into how these abilities may have evolved. Understanding the evolutionary processes of complex traits is crucial to solve pressing problems in auditory perception.
Netherlands