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Long-term and persistent vocal plasticity in adult bats.

ABSTRACT: Bats exhibit a diverse and complex vocabulary of social communication calls some of which are believed to be learned during development. This ability to produce learned, species-specific vocalizations - a rare trait in the animal kingdom - requires a high-degree of vocal plasticity. Bats live extremely long lives in highly complex and dynamic social environments, which suggests that they might also retain a high degree of vocal plasticity in adulthood, much as humans do. Here, we report persistent vocal plasticity in adult bats (Rousettus aegyptiacus) following exposure to broad-band, acoustic perturbation. Our results show that adult bats can not only modify distinct parameters of their vocalizations, but that these changes persist even after noise cessation - in some cases lasting several weeks or months. Combined, these findings underscore the potential importance of bats as a model organism for studies of vocal plasticity, including in adulthood.

SUBMITTER: Genzel D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6662767 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Long-term and persistent vocal plasticity in adult bats.

Genzel Daria D Desai Janki J Paras Elana E Yartsev Michael M MM

Nature communications 20190729 1

Bats exhibit a diverse and complex vocabulary of social communication calls some of which are believed to be learned during development. This ability to produce learned, species-specific vocalizations - a rare trait in the animal kingdom - requires a high-degree of vocal plasticity. Bats live extremely long lives in highly complex and dynamic social environments, which suggests that they might also retain a high degree of vocal plasticity in adulthood, much as humans do. Here, we report persiste ...[more]

PMID: 31358755

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Dataset Information

Long-term and persistent vocal plasticity in adult bats.

Publications

Long-term and persistent vocal plasticity in adult bats.

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