publications

2026

1. Spontaneous Rhythmic and Tool-Assisted Drumming across Variable Tempo and Technique in a Captive Chimpanzee

   J. Brooks, V. Eleuteri, J. van der Werff, and 1 more author

   Ethology, 2026

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2. The Emergence of a Universal Rhythmic Feature: Simple Models Can Produce Categorical Rhythms

   C. Coissac, L. Ferreri, M. Gamba, and 2 more authors

   Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2026

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3. SEX in Bonobos: The Intensity of Sexual Stimulation Sharply Drops after Facial Mimicry

   M. Francesconi, A. Galotti, Y. Jadoul, and 3 more authors

   Evolution and Human Behavior, 2026

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4. Global and Local Deviance Effects in the Processing of Temporal Patterns

   D. Giomo, R. Brasselet, G. Fortunato, and 1 more author

   Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2026

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5. Modeling Human Synchronization to Rhythmic Patterns with Varying Statistical Regularities

   D. Giomo, F. Mancinelli, A. Ravignani, and 1 more author

   Acta Psychologica, 2026

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6. The Ontogeny of Vocal Rhythms in a Non-Human Primate

   L. Laffi, T. Raimondi, C. De Gregorio, and 9 more authors

   Developmental Science, 2026

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7. Erratum: Dancing Male Riflebirds Create a Dynamic Sensory Trajectory That Guides Female Choice (Current Biology: CB (2025) 35 21 PII: S0960-9822(25)01710-5 DOI: 10.1016/j.Cub.2025.09.009.)

   T. MacGillavry, Y. Jadoul, and L. Fusani

   Current biology : CB, 2026

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8. Neonatal Auditory Input Affects Vocal Development in Harbour Seals

   Teresa Raimondi, Caroline E. Haas, Koen de Reus, and 3 more authors

   Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, Feb 2026

   Abs DOI

   Vocal individuality has important biological functions in mammals: at crucial stages of development, it ensures feeding and is a prerequisite for auditory-based mother–pup recognition. Is vocal individuality only shaped by maturation or also by the degree of conspecific acoustic input? Here, we test how the neonatal auditory environment shapes development and individualization of calls in harbour seal pups (Phoca vitulina). To simulate low- versus high-conspecific acoustic density, 18 pups heard playbacks of calls from either 2 or 30 conspecifics. We recorded calls before and after playback exposure and extracted 12 acoustic parameters. Supervised machine learning and discriminant function analyses showed greater individual distinctiveness in both groups after playback, indicating a developmental trend toward individualization. Notably, pups exposed to less-variable input showed higher individuality. Euclidean distances on call parameters showed that both groups diverged from the playback signals. Distances on within-pup and between-pups housed together revealed opposite trajectories in the two groups: after the exposure, less-variable auditory input determined steadier individual calls, while more-variable auditory input scattered calls across the acoustic space. Altogether, our findings indicate that auditory input modulates vocal development in pups, making harbour seals a promising model for unravelling how neonatal environment affects vocal plasticity in a non-human mammal.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Mechanisms of learning from social interaction’.

9. Coastal Resident’s Perceptions and Attitudes of the Visual Impacts of Oyster Aquaculture Cultivation Methods along the Atlantic Coast of the US

   K.M. Schultz, S.B. Scyphers, A. Randall Hughes, and 3 more authors

   Ocean and Coastal Management, 2026

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10. Local Specialists’ Experience and Skills in Animal Behaviour Studies: Insights from Wild Chimpanzee Field Assistants

    A. Soldati, P. Fedurek, V. Eleuteri, and 10 more authors

    Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2026

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11. Sound Guides Object Size Choices in African Penguins through Pitch–Size Association

    F. Terranova, F. D’Orazio, C. Pilenga, and 3 more authors

    Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2026

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12. Extreme Rhythm Keeping in Long-Range Slow Click Communication of Sperm Whales

    S.K.A. Videsen, T. Raimondi, P.M. Sørensen, and 8 more authors

    Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2026

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2025

1. Discrimination between the Facial Gestures of Vocalising and Non-Vocalising Lemurs and Small Apes Using Deep Learning

   F. Carugati, O. Friard, E. Protopapa, and 12 more authors

   Ecological Informatics, 2025

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2. Singing out of Tune: Sexual and Developmental Differences in the Occurrence of Nonlinear Phenomena in Primate Songs

   C. De Gregorio, D. Valente, W. Cristiano, and 8 more authors

   Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2025

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3. Testing Hypotheses on the Major/Minor Dichotomy: Movement, Consonance/Dissonance, and (the Lack of) Cross-Species Evidence. Comment on “the Major-Minor Mode Dichotomy in Music Perception” by Giulio Carraturo, Victor Pando-Naude, Marco Costa, Peter Vuust, Leonardo Bonetti, Elvira Brattico

   N. Di Stefano and A. Ravignani

   Physics of Life Reviews, 2025

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4. A Harbor Seal (Phoca Vitulina) Shows Extensive Respiratory Control in Sound Production

   D. Duengen, Y. Jadoul, and A. Ravignani

   BMC Ecology and Evolution, 2025

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5. Chimpanzee Drumming Shows Rhythmicity and Subspecies Variation

   V. Eleuteri, J. van der Werff, W. Wilhelm, and 18 more authors

   Current Biology, 2025

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6. Investigating Intentionality in Elephant Gestural Communication

   V. Eleuteri, L. Bates, Y. Nyaradzo Masarira, and 3 more authors

   Royal Society Open Science, 2025

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7. Accelerando and Crescendo in African Penguin Ecstatic Display Songs

   T.A. Hersh, Y. Jadoul, M. Gamba, and 2 more authors

   Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2025

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8. An Evolutionary Model of Rhythmic Accelerando in Animal Vocal Signalling

   Y. Jadoul, T.A. Hersh, E.F. Domingos, and 3 more authors

   PLOS Computational Biology, 2025

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9. Hidden Assumptions of Integer Ratio Analyses in Bioacoustics and Music

   Y. Jadoul, T. Tufarelli, C. Coissac, and 2 more authors

   Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2025

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10. Rhythmic Analysis in Animal Communication, Speech, and Music: The Normalized Pairwise Variability Index Is a Summary Statistic of Rhythm Ratios

    Y. Jadoul, F. D’Orazio, V. Eleuteri, and 5 more authors

    Vibration, 2025

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11. The Rhythm of Horse Gaits

    L. Laffi, T. Raimondi, C. Ferrante, and 5 more authors

    Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2025

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12. Rhythmic Categories in Horse Gait Kinematics

    Lia Laffi, Félix Bigand, Christian Peham, and 3 more authors

    Journal of Anatomy, 2025

    Abs DOI

    Anecdotally, horses’ gaits sound rhythmic. Are they really? In this study, we quantified the motor rhythmicity of horses across three different gaits (walk, trot, and canter). For the first time, we adopted quantitative tools from bioacoustics and music cognition to quantify locomotor rhythmicity. Specifically, we tested whether kinematics data contained rhythmic categories; these occur when adjacent temporal intervals are categorically, rather than randomly, distributed. We extracted the motion cycle duration (tk) of two ipsilateral hooves from motion data of 13 ridden horses and calculated the ratios from two successive tk values. We tested whether these ratios significantly fell within rhythmic categories and quantified how close they were to small-integer ratios, a rhythmic feature also present in animal vocalizations and human music. We found a strong isochronous pattern—a 1:1 rhythmic ratio, corresponding to the ticking of a clock—in the motion of single limbs for all gaits. We also analyzed the interlimb coordination of the two ipsilateral hooves’ impacts to identify differences associated with the biomechanical patterns of the three gaits. We found an interlimb 1:1 rhythmic pattern for trot and 1:3 and 3:1 rhythmic categories for walk and canter. Our findings are a first step toward quantifying rhythmicity in horse locomotion and potentially the resulting rhythmic sounds, with possible implications as tools to detect gait irregularities. Overall, we show that rhythmic categories are a valuable tool for gait kinematic analysis and that they can be used to quantify temporal patterns in the motor domain.

13. Dancing Male Riflebirds Create a Dynamic Sensory Trajectory That Guides Female Choice

    T. MacGillavry, Y. Jadoul, and L. Fusani

    Current Biology, 2025

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14. Humans Can Find Rhythm in Randomly Timed Sounds

    Jelle van der Werff, Tommaso Tufarelli, Laura Verga, and 1 more author

    Royal Society Open Science, Aug 2025

    Abs DOI

    Humans are keen pattern-seekers and take advantage of regularities present in their environment. In the temporal domain, we may call these patterns rhythms, but what is rhythm? Definitions vary, but all presuppose a categorical distinction between rhythm and randomness. Here, we challenge this view and show that two types of random sound sequences—classically considered arrhythmic by experimenters—differ in the amount of regularity humans reconstruct from them. When asked to synchronize to randomly timed sounds, participants leverage statistics to estimate the underlying tempo of the sequence, similar to linear statistical estimators. Theoretically, our results challenge current definitions of rhythm by showing that rhythmicity and randomness are instances of a continuum. Methodologically, our data and mathematical model show that a common method for creating random timing, namely the jittering of event onsets, introduces an undesirable regularity that humans readily exploit. New experiments should aim to maximize temporal randomness, and past experiments’ outcomes require reconsideration.

15. Selectivity in Buttress Drumming Tree Properties among Chimpanzees (Pan Troglodytes Schweinfurthii) of the Waibira Community in Budongo Forest, Uganda

    W. Wilhelm, V. Eleuteri, K. Koops, and 3 more authors

    American Journal of Primatology, 2025

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2024

1. Isochronous Singing in 3 Crested Gibbon Species (Nomascus Spp.)

   C. De Gregorio, T. Raimondi, V. Bevilacqua, and 8 more authors

   Current Zoology, 2024

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2. Isochrony as Ancestral Condition to Call and Song in a Primate

   C. De Gregorio, M. Maiolini, T. Raimondi, and 7 more authors

   Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2024

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3. Who You Live with and What You Duet for: A Review of the Function of Primate Duets in Relation to Their Social Organization

   C. De Gregorio, D. Valente, V. Ferrario, and 6 more authors

   Journal of Comparative Physiology A: Neuroethology, Sensory, Neural, and Behavioral Physiology, 2024

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4. Vocal Usage Learning and Vocal Comprehension Learning in Harbor Seals

   D. Duengen, Y. Jadoul, and A. Ravignani

   BMC Neuroscience, 2024

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5. Multimodal Communication and Audience Directedness in the Greeting Behaviour of Semi-Captive African Savannah Elephants

   V. Eleuteri, L. Bates, J. Rendle-Worthington, and 2 more authors

   Communications Biology, 2024

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6. Singing in the Rain! Climate Constraints on the Occurrence of Indri’s Song

   V. Ferrario, T. Raimondi, C. De Gregorio, and 10 more authors

   American Journal of Primatology, 2024

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7. Vocal Tract Dynamics Shape the Formant Structure of Conditioned Vocalizations in a Harbor Seal

   M. Goncharova, Y. Jadoul, C. Reichmuth, and 2 more authors

   Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 2024

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8. Delineating the Field of Language Evolution Research a Quantitative Analysis of Peer-Review Patterns at the Joint Conference on Language Evolution (JCoLE 2022)

   S. Hartmann, S. Wacewicz, A. Ravignani, and 4 more authors

   Interaction Studies, 2024

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9. Harbour Seals Use Rhythmic Percussive Signalling in Interaction and Display

   K. Kocsis, D. Duengen, Y. Jadoul, and 1 more author

   Animal Behaviour, 2024

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10. Chicks Produce Consonant, Sometimes Jazzy, Sounds

    G. Maldarelli, A. Dissegna, A. Ravignani, and 1 more author

    Biology Letters, 2024

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11. Globally, Songs and Instrumental Melodies Are Slower and Higher and Use More Stable Pitches than Speech: A Registered Report

    Yuto Ozaki, Adam Tierney, Peter Q. Pfordresher, and 72 more authors

    Science Advances, May 2024

    Abs DOI

    Both music and language are found in all known human societies, yet no studies have compared similarities and differences between song, speech, and instrumental music on a global scale. In this Registered Report, we analyzed two global datasets: (i) 300 annotated audio recordings representing matched sets of traditional songs, recited lyrics, conversational speech, and instrumental melodies from our 75 coauthors speaking 55 languages; and (ii) 418 previously published adult-directed song and speech recordings from 209 individuals speaking 16 languages. Of our six preregistered predictions, five were strongly supported: Relative to speech, songs use (i) higher pitch, (ii) slower temporal rate, and (iii) more stable pitches, while both songs and speech used similar (iv) pitch interval size and (v) timbral brightness. Exploratory analyses suggest that features vary along a “musi-linguistic” continuum when including instrumental melodies and recited lyrics. Our study provides strong empirical evidence of cross-cultural regularities in music and speech.

12. Testing Rhythmic Abilities in Developmental DyslexiaIs Internal Rhythm Generation Intact?

    Marina Rossi, Eline A. Smit, Jelle van der Werff, and 2 more authors

    Music Perception, Dec 2024

    Abs DOI

    Rhythm processing deficits in developmental dyslexia (DD) span across different rhythmic subcomponents and are difficult to capture using one experimental paradigm. How are dyslexic deficits related to motor periodicity, i.e., the execution of repetitive actions while internally generating rhythm? The present experiment investigated rhythm production in DD by means of unprompted tapping paradigm, testing the hypothesis that the ability to internally generate rhythmic patterns may be impaired. The tasks involved tapping of isochronous sequences at a comfortable and a fast tempo and tapping of a free rhythm. Forty adolescents diagnosed with DD (with or without comorbid dyscalculia) participated, along with thirty typically developing control participants. A background questionnaire gathered information about participants’ prior music training. The data show that both dyslexic groups tapped faster than the typically developing participants at the comfortable tempo. We found no statistical differences between groups in fast isochronous tapping or in the free rhythm production tasks, irrespective of music training or the presence of dyscalculia. All participants favored regular rhythms when tapping a free rhythm, with a notable preference for isochrony. These results have theoretical and clinical implications for rhythm deficit hypotheses of DD.

13. Addressing Constraints to Shellfish Aquaculture through Quantifying Public Perceptions and Attitudes along the Atlantic Coast of the US

    K.M. Schultz, S.B. Scyphers, A.R. Hughes, and 3 more authors

    Ocean and Coastal Management, 2024

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14. Thebeat: A Python Package for Working with Rhythms and Other Temporal Sequences

    J. van der Werff, A. Ravignani, and Y. Jadoul

    Behavior Research Methods, 2024

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