Socio-sexual communication: A review of the sensory modalities used by non-human primates

Abstract

As social animals, primates use signals to transmit information about social and sexual status to conspecifics. When these signals lead receivers to change their behavior, we can consider that communication between the individuals has occurred. Primates can produce and use four sensory modalities to communicate between conspecifics: acoustic, chemical, visual and tactile. The use of each modality depends on the social and physical environment, the receiver's sensory system and the context. In this review, the authors present behavioural evidence of each sensory modality used in socio-sexual contexts and compare this evidence for Old World and New World monkeys in an attempt to guide future studies on the evolution of communication.