Using digital images of the zebra finch song system as a tool to teach organizational effects of steroid hormones: a free downloadable module.
Ontology highlight
ABSTRACT:
SUBMITTER: Grisham W
PROVIDER: S-EPMC3105929 | biostudies-literature |
REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature
Similar Datasets
Project description:The human capacity for speech and vocal music depends on vocal imitation. Songbirds, in contrast to non-human primates, share this vocal production learning with humans. The process through which birds and humans learn many of their vocalizations as well as the underlying neural system exhibit a number of striking parallels and have been widely researched. In contrast, rhythm, a key feature of language, and music, has received surprisingly little attention in songbirds. Investigating temporal periodicity in bird song has the potential to inform the relationship between neural mechanisms and behavioral output and can also provide insight into the biology and evolution of musicality. Here we present a method to analyze birdsong for an underlying rhythmic regularity. Using the intervals from one note onset to the next as input, we found for each bird an isochronous sequence of time stamps, a "signal-derived pulse," or pulse(S), of which a subset aligned with all note onsets of the bird's song. Fourier analysis corroborated these results. To determine whether this finding was just a byproduct of the duration of notes and intervals typical for zebra finches but not dependent on the individual duration of elements and the sequence in which they are sung, we compared natural songs to models of artificial songs. Note onsets of natural song deviated from the pulse(S) significantly less than those of artificial songs with randomized note and gap durations. Thus, male zebra finch song has the regularity required for a listener to extract a perceived pulse (pulse(P)), as yet untested. Strikingly, in our study, pulses(S) that best fit note onsets often also coincided with the transitions between sub-note elements within complex notes, corresponding to neuromuscular gestures. Gesture durations often equaled one or more pulse(S) periods. This suggests that gesture duration constitutes the basic element of the temporal hierarchy of zebra finch song rhythm, an interesting parallel to the hierarchically structured components of regular rhythms in human music.
| S-EPMC4934119 | biostudies-other
Project description:We reconstruct the physiological parameters that control an avian vocal organ during birdsong production using recorded song. The procedure involves fitting the time dependent parameters of an avian vocal organ model. Computationally, the model is implemented as a dynamical system ruling the behavior of the oscillating labia that modulate the air flow during sound production, together with the equations describing the dynamics of pressure fluctuations in the vocal tract. We tested our procedure for Zebra finch song with, simultaneously recorded physiological parameters: air sac pressure and the electromyographic activity of the left and right ventral syringeal muscles. A comparison of the reconstructed instructions with measured physiological parameters during song shows a high degree of correlation. Integrating the model with reconstructed parameters leads to the synthesis of highly realistic songs.
| S-EPMC3909473 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Zebra finches produce a learned song that is rich in harmonic structure and highly stereotyped. More is generally known about how birds learn and produce this song than how they perceive it. Here, zebra finches were trained with operant techniques to discriminate changes in natural and synthetic song motifs. Results show that zebra finches are quite insensitive to changes to the overall envelope of the motif since they were unable to discriminate more than a doubling in inter-syllable interval durations. By contrast, they were quite sensitive to changes in individual syllables. A series of tests with synthetic song syllables, including some made of frozen noise and Schroeder harmonic complexes, showed that birds used a suite of acoustic cues in normal listening but they could also distinguish among syllables simply on the basis of the temporal fine structure in the waveform. Thus, while syllable perception is maintained by multiple redundant cues, temporal fine structure features alone are sufficient for syllable discrimination and may be more important for communication than previously thought.
| S-EPMC3108398 | biostudies-other
Project description:As is the case for human speech, birdsong is transmitted across generations by imitative learning. Although transfer of song patterns from adults to juveniles typically occurs via vertical or oblique transmission, there is also evidence of horizontal transmission between juveniles of the same generation. Here, we show that a young male zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) that has been exposed to its father during the sensitive period for song learning can lead a brother, that has never heard the paternal song, to imitate some sounds of the father. Moreover, song similarity between the two brothers was higher than the similarity measured between the paternal song and the song of the brother that had a week-long exposure to the father. We speculate that the phenomenon of within-generation song learning among juveniles may be more widespread than previously thought and that when a juvenile evaluates potential models for imitative learning, a sibling may be as salient as an adult.
| S-EPMC3730634 | biostudies-literature
Project description:There is a rich history of behavioral and neurobiological research focused on the 'syntax' of birdsong as a model for human language and complex auditory perception. Zebra finches are one of the most widely studied songbird species in this area of investigation. As they produce song syllables in a fixed sequence, it is reasonable to assume that adult zebra finches are also sensitive to the order of syllables within their song; however, results from electrophysiological and behavioral studies provide somewhat mixed evidence on exactly how sensitive zebra finches are to syllable order as compared, say, to syllable structure. Here, we investigate how well adult zebra finches can discriminate changes in syllable order relative to changes in syllable structure in their natural song motifs. In addition, we identify a possible role for experience in enhancing sensitivity to syllable order. We found that both male and female adult zebra finches are surprisingly poor at discriminating changes to the order of syllables within their species-specific song motifs, but are extraordinarily good at discriminating changes to syllable structure (i.e., reversals) in specific syllables. Direct experience or familiarity with a song, either using the bird's own song (BOS) or the song of a flock mate as the test stimulus, improved both male and female zebra finches' sensitivity to syllable order. However, even with experience, birds remained much more sensitive to structural changes in syllables. These results help to clarify some of the ambiguities from the literature on the discriminability of changes in syllable order in zebra finches, provide potential insight on the ethological significance of zebra finch song features, and suggest new avenues of investigation in using zebra finches as animal models for sequential sound processing.
| S-EPMC6438364 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Unlearned calls are produced by all birds whereas learned songs are only found in three avian taxa, most notably in songbirds. The neural basis for song learning and production is formed by interconnected song nuclei: the song control system. In addition to song, zebra finches produce large numbers of soft, unlearned calls, among which "stack" calls are uttered frequently. To determine unequivocally the calls produced by each member of a group, we mounted miniature wireless microphones on each zebra finch. We find that group living paired males and females communicate using bilateral stack calling. To investigate the role of the song control system in call-based male female communication, we recorded the electrical activity in a premotor nucleus of the song control system in freely behaving male birds. The unique combination of acoustic monitoring together with wireless brain recording of individual zebra finches in groups shows that the neuronal activity of the song system correlates with the production of unlearned stack calls. The results suggest that the song system evolved from a brain circuit controlling simple unlearned calls to a system capable of producing acoustically rich, learned vocalizations.
| S-EPMC4196903 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Culture is typically viewed as consisting of traits inherited epigenetically, through social learning. However, cultural diversity has species-typical constraints, presumably of genetic origin. A celebrated, if contentious, example is whether a universal grammar constrains syntactic diversity in human languages. Oscine songbirds exhibit song learning and provide biologically tractable models of culture: members of a species show individual variation in song and geographically separated groups have local song dialects. Different species exhibit distinct song cultures, suggestive of genetic constraints. Without such constraints, innovations and copying errors should cause unbounded variation over multiple generations or geographical distance, contrary to observations. Here we report an experiment designed to determine whether wild-type song culture might emerge over multiple generations in an isolated colony founded by isolates, and, if so, how this might happen and what type of social environment is required. Zebra finch isolates, unexposed to singing males during development, produce song with characteristics that differ from the wild-type song found in laboratory or natural colonies. In tutoring lineages starting from isolate founders, we quantified alterations in song across tutoring generations in two social environments: tutor-pupil pairs in sound-isolated chambers and an isolated semi-natural colony. In both settings, juveniles imitated the isolate tutors but changed certain characteristics of the songs. These alterations accumulated over learning generations. Consequently, songs evolved towards the wild-type in three to four generations. Thus, species-typical song culture can appear de novo. Our study has parallels with language change and evolution. In analogy to models in quantitative genetics, we model song culture as a multigenerational phenotype partly encoded genetically in an isolate founding population, influenced by environmental variables and taking multiple generations to emerge.
| S-EPMC2693086 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Songbirds are important models for understanding the mechanisms and fitness consequences of imitative vocal learning. Although the effects of early-life environmental and social conditions on song learning are well-established, the impact of early sound exposure has received surprisingly little attention. Yet recent evidence hints at auditory sensitivity in songbird embryos, including in the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), a classic model species for song learning. Here, we tested whether prenatal exposure to incubation calls-highly rhythmic parental vocalisations produced on the nest-affected song learning in zebra finches. Embryos were exposed in the egg to either incubation (treatment) or contact (control) calls, and after hatching were reared in a large colony. The playback treatment did not affect song complexity nor the accuracy of song copying from the social father, but instead increased learning of non-paternal song syllables. This, in turn, improved males' mounting success in mating trials. These effects may be attributable to changes in juvenile social behaviours, as playback also influenced male behaviour during mating trials. Our study provides the first experimental evidence that prenatal acoustic environment affects song learning and courtship behaviour in songbirds, thereby raising interesting questions on the role of innate versus acquired biases for vocal learning.
| S-EPMC6189107 | biostudies-literature
Project description:Neurons regulate their intrinsic physiological properties, which could influence network properties and contribute to behavioral plasticity. Recording from adult zebra finch brain slices we show that within each bird basal ganglia Area X-projecting (HVCX) neurons share similar spike waveform morphology and timing of spike trains, with modeling indicating similar magnitudes of five principal ion currents. These properties vary among birds in lawful relation to acoustic similarity of the birds' songs, with adult sibling pairs (same songs) sharing similar waveforms and spiking characteristics. The properties are maintained dynamically: HVCX within juveniles learning to sing show variable properties, whereas the uniformity rapidly degrades within hours in adults singing while exposed to abnormal (delayed) auditory feedback. Thus, within individual birds the population of current magnitudes covary over the arc of development, while rapidly responding to changes in feedback (in adults). This identifies network interactions with intrinsic properties that affect information storage and processing of learned vocalizations.
| S-EPMC7031510 | biostudies-literature
Project description:The use of information provided by others is a common short-cut adopted to inform decision-making. However, instead of indiscriminately copying others, animals are often selective in what, when and whom they copy. How do they decide which 'social learning strategy' to use? Previous research indicates that stress hormone exposure in early life may be important: while juvenile zebra finches copied their parents' behaviour when solving novel foraging tasks, those exposed to elevated levels of corticosterone (CORT) during development copied only unrelated adults. Here, we tested whether this switch in social learning strategy generalizes to vocal learning. In zebra finches, juvenile males often copy their father's song; would CORT-treated juveniles in free-flying aviaries switch to copying songs of other males? We found that CORT-treated juveniles copied their father's song less accurately as compared to control juveniles. We hypothesized that this could be due to having weaker social foraging associations with their fathers, and found that sons that spent less time foraging with their fathers produced less similar songs. Our findings are in line with a novel hypothesis linking early-life stress and social learning: early-life CORT exposure may affect social learning indirectly as a result of the way it shapes social affiliations.This article is part of the theme issue 'Causes and consequences of individual differences in cognitive abilities'.
| S-EPMC6107560 | biostudies-literature