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Familial bias and auditory feedback regulation of vocal babbling patterns during early song development.

ABSTRACT: Learned vocalizations are a crucial acoustic biosignal conveying individual traits in many species. Songbirds learn song patterns by listening to a tutor song and performing vocal practice during a sensitive developmental period. However, when and how individual differences in song patterns develop remain unknown. Here, we report that individual differences in vocal output exist even at the earliest song development stage, called subsong. Experiments involving the manipulation of both breeding pairs and song tutoring conditions revealed that the parental pair combination contributes to generating familial differences in syllable duration and variability in the subsong of offspring. Furthermore, after deafening, juveniles immediately changed their subsong by shortening the syllable durations but maintained the individual variability of their subsong temporal patterns, suggesting both auditory-sensitive modification and independent intrinsic regulation of vocal output. These results indicate that the temporal patterns of subsong are not merely disordered vocalization but are regulated by familial bias with sensitivity to auditory feedback, thus generating individual variability at the initiation of vocal development.

SUBMITTER: Sato D

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4957237 | biostudies-other | 2016

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-other

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Familial bias and auditory feedback regulation of vocal babbling patterns during early song development.

Sato Daisuke D Mori Chihiro C Sawai Azusa A Wada Kazuhiro K

Scientific reports 20160722

Learned vocalizations are a crucial acoustic biosignal conveying individual traits in many species. Songbirds learn song patterns by listening to a tutor song and performing vocal practice during a sensitive developmental period. However, when and how individual differences in song patterns develop remain unknown. Here, we report that individual differences in vocal output exist even at the earliest song development stage, called subsong. Experiments involving the manipulation of both breeding p ...[more]

PMID: 27444993

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Project description:Vocal control plays a critical role in smooth social communication. Speakers constantly monitor auditory feedback (AF) and make adjustments when their voices deviate from their intentions. Previous studies have shown that when certain acoustic features of the AF are artificially altered, speakers compensate for this alteration in the opposite direction. However, little is known about how the vocal control system implements compensations for alterations of different acoustic features, and associates them with subjective consciousness. The present study investigated whether compensations for the fundamental frequency (F0), which corresponds to perceived pitch, and formants, which contribute to perceived timbre, can be performed unconsciously and independently. Forty native Japanese speakers received two types of altered AF during vowel production that involved shifts of either only the formant frequencies (formant modification; Fm) or both the pitch and formant frequencies (pitch + formant modification; PFm). For each type, three levels of shift (slight, medium, and severe) in both directions (increase or decrease) were used. After the experiment, participants were tested for whether they had perceived a change in the F0 and/or formants. The results showed that (i) only formants were compensated for in the Fm condition, while both the F0 and formants were compensated for in the PFm condition; (ii) the F0 compensation exhibited greater precision than the formant compensation in PFm; and (iii) compensation occurred even when participants misperceived or could not explicitly perceive the alteration in AF. These findings indicate that non-experts can compensate for both formant and F0 modifications in the AF during vocal production, even when the modifications are not explicitly or correctly perceived, which provides further evidence for a dissociation between conscious perception and action in vocal control. We propose that such unconscious control of voice production may enhance rapid adaptation to changing speech environments and facilitate mutual communication.

Project description:Mother-infant vocal interactions play a crucial role in the development of human language. However, comparatively little is known about the maternal role during vocal development in nonhuman primates. Here, we report the first evidence of mother-daughter vocal interactions contributing to vocal development in gibbons, a singing and monogamous ape species. Gibbons are well known for their species-specific duets sung between mates, yet little is known about the role of intergenerational duets in gibbon song development. We observed singing interactions between free-ranging mothers and their sub-adult daughters prior to emigration. Daughters sang simultaneously with their mothers at different rates. First, we observed significant acoustic variation between daughters. Co-singing rates between mother and daughter were negatively correlated with the temporal precision of the song's synchronization. In addition, songs of daughters who co-sang less with their mothers were acoustically more similar to the maternal song than any other adult female's song. All variables have been reported to be influenced by social relationships of pairs. Therefore those correlations would be mediated by mother-daughter social relationship, which would be modifiable in daughter's development. Here we hypothesized that daughters who co-sing less often, well-synchronize, and converge acoustically with the maternal acoustic pattern would be at a more advanced stage of social independence in sub-adult females prior to emigration. Second, we observed acoustic matching between mothers and daughters when co-singing, suggesting short-term vocal flexibility. Third, we found that mothers adjusted songs to a more stereotyped pattern when co-singing than when singing alone. This vocal adjustment was stronger for mothers with daughters who co-sang less. These results indicate the presence of socially mediated vocal flexibility in gibbon sub-adults and adults, and that mother-daughter co-singing interactions may enhance vocal development. More comparative work, notably longitudinal and experimental, is now needed to clarify maternal roles during song development.

Dataset Information

Familial bias and auditory feedback regulation of vocal babbling patterns during early song development.

Publications

Familial bias and auditory feedback regulation of vocal babbling patterns during early song development.

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