@article {57930, title = {Significant Instances in Motor Gestures of Different Songbird Species}, year = {2019}, abstract = {

The nervous system representation of a motor program is an open problem for most behaviors. In birdsong production, it has been proposed that some special temporal instances, linked to significant aspects of the motor gestures used to generate the song, are preferentially represented in the cortex. In this work, we compute these temporal instances for two species, and report which of them is better suited to test the proposed coding (as well as alternative models) against data.

}, keywords = {birdsong production, cortical representation, motor gestures, songbirds, sparse coding}, doi = {10.3389/fphy.2019.0014210.3389/fphy.2019.00142.s001}, url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fphy.2019.00142/full}, author = {Lassa Ortiz, Javier N. and Herbert, Cecilia T. and Mindlin, Gabriel B. and Amador, Ana} } @article {57919, title = {Sound sequences in birdsong: how much do birds really care?}, year = {2020}, abstract = {

The complex and melodic nature of many birds\&$\#$39; songs has raised interest in potential parallels between avian vocal sequences and human speech. The similarities between birdsong and speech in production and learning are well established, but surprisingly little is known about how birds perceive song sequences. One popular laboratory songbird, the zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), has recently attracted attention as an avian model for human speech, in part because the male learns to produce the individual elements in its song motif in a fixed sequence. But psychoacoustic evidence shows that adult zebra finches are relatively insensitive to the sequential features of song syllables. Instead, zebra finches and other birds seem to be exquisitely sensitive to the acoustic details of individual syllables to a degree that is beyond human hearing capacity. Based on these findings, we present a finite-state model of zebra finch perception of song syllable sequences and discuss the rich informational capacity of their vocal system. Furthermore, we highlight the abilities of budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus), a parrot species, to hear sequential features better than zebra finches and suggest that neurophysiological investigations comparing these species could prove fruitful for uncovering neural mechanisms for auditory sequence perception in human speech.

}, keywords = {birdsong, fine structure, phonology, sequence perception, syntax}, doi = {10.1098/rstb.2019.0044}, url = {https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rstb.2019.0044}, author = {Fishbein, Adam R. and Idsardi, William J. and Ball, Gregory F. and Dooling, Robert J.} } @article {53151, title = {Calling in the heat: the zebra finch {\textquotedblleft}incubation call{\textquotedblright} depends on heat but not reproductive stage}, journal = {Behavioral Ecology}, year = {2018}, month = {Aug-10-2018}, abstract = {

Environmental conditions during early development can profoundly impact an organism\’s phenotype, potentially resulting in future adaptations. Offspring can often obtain environmental information directly, but in some cases rely on parental cues or signals. It was recently suggested that at high ambient temperatures zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) parents use acoustic signals (\“incubation calls\” or hereon \“v-calls\”) to adaptively alter offspring development for hot conditions. However, this conclusion requires a thorough understanding of the timing and production of the call. In this study, we use audio recordings (1696 h) from within wild zebra finch nest-boxes, and of nonbreeding captive zebra finches experimentally exposed to heat, to characterize the circumstances under which v-calls are produced. V-call incidence was positively related to ambient temperature in the wild and captivity, confirming that v-calls are temperature dependent. However, v-calls were not limited to late incubation (as previously suggested) and were instead produced throughout incubation and chick rearing in the wild, and by nonbreeding captive adults. Videos of the captive birds revealed that v-calls were produced during \“bouts\” of panting. We found no evidence that during v-call production breathing patterns were being altered from that optimal for panting and typical of quiet respiration (1:1 inspiration:expiration). While embryos may gather climatic information from this heat-related call, it is produced over a range of conditions so is unlikely to be a specifically evolved signal for offspring programming. The idea that parents use specifically evolved signals to provide offspring with climate information requires further study.

}, issn = {1045-2249}, doi = {10.1093/beheco/ary123}, url = {https://academic.oup.com/beheco/advance-article/doi/10.1093/beheco/ary123/5123578}, author = {McDiarmid, Callum S and Naguib, Marc and Griffith, Simon C} } @article {53115, title = {Zebra finches identify individuals using vocal signatures unique to each call type}, journal = {Nature Communications}, volume = {9}, year = {2018}, month = {Jan-12-2018}, abstract = {

Individual\  recognition\  is\  critical\  in\  social\  animal\  communication,\  but\  it\  has\  not\  beendemonstrated for a complete vocal repertoire. Deciphering the nature of individual signaturesacross call types is necessary to understand how animals solve the problem of combining, inthe same signal, information about identity and behavioral state. We show that distinctsignatures differentiate zebrafinch individuals for each call type. The distinctiveness of thesesignatures varies: contact calls bear strong individual signatures while calls used duringaggressive encounters are less individualized. We propose that the costly solution of usingmultiple signatures evolved because of the limitations of the passivefiltering properties of thebirds\’vocal organ for generating sufficiently individualized features. Thus, individual recog-nition requires the memorization of multiple signatures for the entire repertoire of con-specifics of interests. We show that zebrafinches excel at these tasks.

}, doi = {10.1038/s41467-018-06394-9}, url = {http://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-06394-9}, author = {Elie, Julie E. and Theunissen, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric E.} } @article {53114, title = {The vocal repertoire of the domesticated zebra finch: a data-driven approach to decipher the information-bearing acoustic features of communication signals}, journal = {Animal Cognition}, volume = {19}, year = {2016}, month = {Jan-03-2016}, pages = {285 - 315}, abstract = {

Although a universal code for the acoustic features of animal vocal communication calls may not exist, the thorough analysis of the distinctive acoustical features of vocalization categories is important not only to decipher the acoustical code for a specific species but also to understand the evolution of communication signals and the mechanisms used to produce and understand them. Here, we recorded more than 8000 examples of almost all the vocalizations of the domesticated zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata: vocalizations produced to establish contact, to form and maintain pair bonds, to sound an alarm, to communicate distress or to advertise hunger or aggressive intents. We characterized each vocalization type using complete representations that avoided any a priori assumptions on the acoustic code, as well as classical bioacoustics measures that could provide more intuitive interpretations. We then used these acoustical features to rigorously determine the potential information-bearing acoustical features for each vocalization type using both a novel regularized classifier and an unsupervised clustering algorithm. Vocalization categories are discriminated by the shape of their frequency spectrum and by their pitch saliency (noisy to tonal vocalizations) but not particularly by their fundamental frequency. Notably, the spectral shape of zebra finch vocalizations contains peaks or formants that vary systematically across categories and that would be generated by active control of both the vocal organ (source) and the upper vocal tract (filter).

}, keywords = {Acoustic signature, classification, Meaning, Regularization, Songbird, vocalization}, issn = {1435-9448}, doi = {10.1007/s10071-015-0933-6}, url = {http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10071-015-0933-6}, author = {Elie, Julie E. and Theunissen, Fr{\'e}d{\'e}ric E.} } @article {50499, title = {Impact of group size and social composition on group vocal activity and acoustic network in a social songbird}, journal = {Animal Behaviour}, volume = {127}, year = {2017}, month = {Jan-05-2017}, pages = {163 - 178}, abstract = {

In social species individuals living in the same group may synchronize activities such as movements, foraging or antipredator vigilance. Synchronization of activities can also be observed between partners especially during breeding and can be crucial for breeding success. Vocalizations are behaviours that can be coordinated between individuals, but simultaneous vocalizations in groups have mostly been considered as noise that does not bear any information. Indeed, little is known about the structure and function of vocal communications involving a network of individuals. How individual vocal activity forms part of the communal sound and how the group influences individual vocal activity are questions that remain to be studied. Zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, are social, monogamous songbirds that form lifelong pair bonds. In the wild, they are typically found in small groups, with the pair as the primary social unit, and they gather in \‘social\’ trees where both females and males produce vocalizations. Here we investigated in the laboratory the influence of group size and composition on general vocal activity and synchrony, as well as the influence of pair bond and spatial location on the finer characteristics of dyads\&$\#$39; vocal interactions. We used a set-up that locked the birds at fixed spatial positions of our choosing to control the proximity network and allowed us to match most of the vocalizations with specific individuals. We used an in-house software suite that automatically detects vocalizations from hours of passive recording. We found that zebra finch groups synchronized their general vocal activity with waves of collective vocalizations, which depended on both the size and the composition of the group. The acoustic network was shaped by pair bonds at different timescales. Birds preferentially vocalized close in time to (synchrony) or directly after (turn taking) their partner when it was present and the nearest neighbour when the partner was not available.

}, keywords = {acoustic communication, group collective calling, pair bond, social network, songbirds, turn taking, vocalizations, Zebra Finch}, issn = {00033472}, doi = {10.1016/j.anbehav.2017.03.013}, url = {http://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0003347217300854}, author = {Fernandez, M.S.A. and Vignal, C. and Soula, H.A.} }