Abstract
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’.
Highlights
Vocal imitation learning is a rare trait in the animal kingdom, but is common among songbirds [1]
We found that male and female zebra finches showed differential approaching and vocal behaviour towards playbacks of the normal-order father’s song versus a novel song stimulus, 5 confirming prior results (e.g. [14,17], see the electronic supplementary material for a discussion) and indicating recognition of the learned father’s song
When the strength of male subjects’ song imitation was taken into consideration, we found a significant correlation between differential behavioural responsiveness to the song stimuli and the similarity with the father’s song
Summary
Vocal imitation learning is a rare trait in the animal kingdom, but is common among songbirds [1]. The zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) is a widely used animal species to study the biological basis of vocal learning. Zebra finch males sing, and they learn their song from adult males, including their father. Female zebra finches do not produce learned vocalizations, but they form a memory of their father’s song [5]. The importance of sequential information for perception and recognition remains unclear It is not known if and how birds segment or parse song into smaller acoustic units, how these are memorized, and eventually used to recognize songs in their natural habitat (see for a review [6]). Previous studies demonstrated that zebra finches are able to discriminate between very similar songs, that only differ in the position of some father 115 manipulations royalsocietypublishing.org/journal/rstb Phil.
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