Welcome new masters student: Jaana Komonen-Kauramäki

Jaana is doing her master's thesis studying domestication in cats, specifically studying human-to-cat vocalization.

Jaana is studying ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Helsinki with Prof. Emma Vitikainen. She's interested in animal behavior, coevolution and domestication. In particular her focus is on interspecific vocal communication and how evolution has influenced vocalization. Jaana is currently doing her master’s thesis about human-to-cat vocalization, studying the acoustic structure of the communication sounds. In her thesis, Jaana is studying the acoustic features of cat calls, to ascertain what features are specific to different language groups vs. sounds "designed" to get a cat's attention and to get the cat to approach (e.g. mimicking small prey).