Sex differences in infant vocalization and the origin of language

D Kimbrough Oller; Jill Gilkerson; Jeffrey A Richards; Steve Hannon; Ulrike Griebel; Dale D Bowman; Jane A Brown; Hyunjoo Yoo; Steven F Warren

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2023.106884

Sex differences in infant vocalization and the origin of language

iScience. 2023 May 31;26(6):106884. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2023.106884. eCollection 2023 Jun 16.

Authors

D Kimbrough Oller^{1

2

3}, Jill Gilkerson⁴, Jeffrey A Richards⁴, Steve Hannon⁴, Ulrike Griebel^{1

2

3}, Dale D Bowman¹, Jane A Brown^{1

2}, Hyunjoo Yoo⁵, Steven F Warren⁶

Affiliations

¹ University of Memphis, School of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
² Institute for Intelligent Systems, University of Memphis, Memphis, TN 38152, USA.
³ Konrad Lorenz Institute for Evolution and Cognition Research, 3400 Klosterneuburg, Austria.
⁴ LENA Foundation, Louisville, CO 80027, USA.
⁵ University of Alabama, Communicative Disorders, Tuscaloosa, AL 35487, USA.
⁶ University of Kansas, Speech-Language-Hearing: Sciences and Disorders, Lawrence, KS 66045, USA.

Abstract

Seeking to discern the earliest sex differences in language-related activities, our focus is vocal activity in the first two years of life, following up on recent research that unexpectedly showed boys produced significantly more speech-like vocalizations (protophones) than girls during the first year of life.We now bring a much larger body of data to bear on the comparison of early sex differences in vocalization, data based on automated analysis of all-day recordings of infants in their homes. The new evidence, like that of the prior study, also suggests boys produce more protophones than girls in the first year and offers additional basis for informed speculation about biological reasons for these differences. More broadly, the work offers a basis for informed speculations about foundations of language that we propose to have evolved in our distant hominin ancestors, foundations also required in early vocal development of modern human infants.

Keywords: Behavioral neuroscience; Gender; Linguistics.

Grants and funding

R01 DC015108/DC/NIDCD NIH HHS/United States