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High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird

Effective vocal communication often requires the listener to recognize the identity of a vocalizer, and this recognition is dependent on the listener’s ability to form auditory memories. We tested the memory capacity of a social songbird, the zebra finch, for vocalizer identities using conditioning...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Yu, K., Wood, W. E., Theunissen, F. E.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7673746/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33188032
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0440
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author Yu, K.
Wood, W. E.
Theunissen, F. E.
author_facet Yu, K.
Wood, W. E.
Theunissen, F. E.
author_sort Yu, K.
collection PubMed
description Effective vocal communication often requires the listener to recognize the identity of a vocalizer, and this recognition is dependent on the listener’s ability to form auditory memories. We tested the memory capacity of a social songbird, the zebra finch, for vocalizer identities using conditioning experiments and found that male and female zebra finches can remember a large number of vocalizers (mean, 42) based solely on the individual signatures found in their songs and distance calls. These memories were formed within a few trials, were generalized to previously unheard renditions, and were maintained for up to a month. A fast and high-capacity auditory memory for vocalizer identity has not been demonstrated previously in any nonhuman animals and is an important component of vocal communication in social species.
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spelling pubmed-76737462020-11-24 High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird Yu, K. Wood, W. E. Theunissen, F. E. Sci Adv Research Articles Effective vocal communication often requires the listener to recognize the identity of a vocalizer, and this recognition is dependent on the listener’s ability to form auditory memories. We tested the memory capacity of a social songbird, the zebra finch, for vocalizer identities using conditioning experiments and found that male and female zebra finches can remember a large number of vocalizers (mean, 42) based solely on the individual signatures found in their songs and distance calls. These memories were formed within a few trials, were generalized to previously unheard renditions, and were maintained for up to a month. A fast and high-capacity auditory memory for vocalizer identity has not been demonstrated previously in any nonhuman animals and is an important component of vocal communication in social species. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2020-11-13 /pmc/articles/PMC7673746/ /pubmed/33188032 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0440 Text en Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research Articles
Yu, K.
Wood, W. E.
Theunissen, F. E.
High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird
title High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird
title_full High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird
title_fullStr High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird
title_full_unstemmed High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird
title_short High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird
title_sort high-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird
topic Research Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7673746/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33188032
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abe0440
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