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Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition

Songbird vocal learning has interesting behavioural and neural parallels with speech acquisition in human infants. Zebra finch males sing one unique song that they imitate from conspecific males, and both sexes learn to recognize their father's song. Although males copy the stereotyped syllable...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Mol, Carien, Bolhuis, Johan J., Moorman, Sanne
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: The Royal Society 2021
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8419574/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34482724
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0248
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author Mol, Carien
Bolhuis, Johan J.
Moorman, Sanne
author_facet Mol, Carien
Bolhuis, Johan J.
Moorman, Sanne
author_sort Mol, Carien
collection PubMed
description Songbird vocal learning has interesting behavioural and neural parallels with speech acquisition in human infants. Zebra finch males sing one unique song that they imitate from conspecific males, and both sexes learn to recognize their father's song. Although males copy the stereotyped syllable sequence of their father's song, the role of sequential information in recognition remains unclear. Here, we investigated father's song recognition after changing the serial order of syllables (switching the middle syllables, first and last syllables, or playing all syllables in inverse order). Behavioural approach and call responses of adult male and female zebra finches to their father's versus unfamiliar songs in playback tests demonstrated significant recognition of father's song with all syllable-order manipulations. We then measured behavioural responses to normal versus inversed-order father's song. In line with our first results, the subjects did not differentiate between the two. Interestingly, when males' strength of song learning was taken into account, we found a significant correlation between song imitation scores and the approach responses to the father's song. These findings suggest that syllable sequence is not essential for recognition of father's song in zebra finches, but that it does affect responsiveness of males in proportion to the strength of vocal learning. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’.
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spelling pubmed-84195742021-10-07 Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition Mol, Carien Bolhuis, Johan J. Moorman, Sanne Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci Articles Songbird vocal learning has interesting behavioural and neural parallels with speech acquisition in human infants. Zebra finch males sing one unique song that they imitate from conspecific males, and both sexes learn to recognize their father's song. Although males copy the stereotyped syllable sequence of their father's song, the role of sequential information in recognition remains unclear. Here, we investigated father's song recognition after changing the serial order of syllables (switching the middle syllables, first and last syllables, or playing all syllables in inverse order). Behavioural approach and call responses of adult male and female zebra finches to their father's versus unfamiliar songs in playback tests demonstrated significant recognition of father's song with all syllable-order manipulations. We then measured behavioural responses to normal versus inversed-order father's song. In line with our first results, the subjects did not differentiate between the two. Interestingly, when males' strength of song learning was taken into account, we found a significant correlation between song imitation scores and the approach responses to the father's song. These findings suggest that syllable sequence is not essential for recognition of father's song in zebra finches, but that it does affect responsiveness of males in proportion to the strength of vocal learning. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Vocal learning in animals and humans’. The Royal Society 2021-10-25 2021-09-06 /pmc/articles/PMC8419574/ /pubmed/34482724 http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0248 Text en © 2021 The Authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Published by the Royal Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Articles
Mol, Carien
Bolhuis, Johan J.
Moorman, Sanne
Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition
title Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition
title_full Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition
title_fullStr Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition
title_full_unstemmed Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition
title_short Vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition
title_sort vocal learning in songbirds: the role of syllable order in song recognition
topic Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8419574/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34482724
http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rstb.2020.0248
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