Discriminative phonation in macaques: effects of anterior mesial cortex damage.

Lesion damage of the anterior midline hemisphere in M. mulatta results in impaired discriminative vocal activity. Destruction of the supplementary motor area (SMA) or pre-SMA greatly increases vocal response latency without similar changes in a non-vocal response. Discrimination and efficiency in performing the vocal and non-vocal responses are unaffected by this damage. The behavioral deficit reflects a specific loss in initiating vocal signals.