Behavioural responses to video and live presentations4 of females reveal a dissociation between performance 5 and motivational aspects of birdsong 6 7 8 9 ABSTRACT 29Understanding the regulation of social behavioural expression requires insight into 30 motivational and performance aspects of social behaviours. While a number of studies 31 have independently investigated motivational or performance aspects of social 32 behaviours, few have examined how these aspects relate to each other. By comparing 33 behavioural variation in response to live or video presentations of conspecific females, 34we analysed how variation in the motivation to produce courtship song covaries with 35 variation in performance aspects of courtship song in male zebra finches (Taeniopygia 36 guttata). Consistent with previous reports, we observed that male zebra finches were 37 less motivated to produce courtship songs to videos of females than to live 38 presentations of females. However, we found that acoustic features that reflect song 39 performance were indistinguishable between songs produced to videos of females and 40 songs produced to live presentations of females. For example, songs directed at video 41 presentations of females were just as fast and stereotyped as songs directed at live 42 females. These experimental manipulations and correlational analyses reveal a 43 dissociation between motivational and performance aspects of birdsong and suggest a 44 refinement of neural models of song production and control. In addition, they support 45 the efficacy of videos to study both motivational and performance aspects of social 46 behaviours. 47 48The extent and quality of various social displays, including communicative and 53 courtship behaviours, reflect an individual's motivation and performance. Motivation 54 refers to the "drive" to display a behaviour whereas performance refers to the fine 55 motoric aspects of the behaviour. For example, internal and external states can affect 56 the likelihood of displaying maternal behaviours (e.g., pup retrieval and grooming), and 57 the latency and efficiency of pup-directed behaviours can vary between individuals as 58 well as within individuals over time (Champagne et al., 2003; Clark et al., 2002; 59 Stolzenberg et al., 2012). Both the motivation to engage in maternal behaviours and the 60 performance of various components of maternal behaviour have important 61 developmental consequences, and such findings highlight the importance of 62 investigating both motivation and performance to gain a comprehensive understanding 63 of social behaviour (Meaney, 2001; Rilling and Young, 2014). However, motivation and 64 performance are often studied independently, and relatively little is known about the 65 relationship between mechanisms regulating motivational and performance aspects of 66 behaviour. In particular, little is known about the extent to which factors that affect the 67 motivation to display a behaviour similarly affect the performance of the behaviour. 68 69Birdsong provides an ...
Learning to respond appropriately to novel dangers is often essential to survival and success, but carries risks. Learning about novel threats from others (social learning) can reduce these risks. Many species, including the Trinidadian guppy ( Poecilia reticulata ), respond defensively to both conspecific chemical alarm cues and conspecific anti-predator behaviours, and in other fish such social information can lead to a learned aversion to novel threats. However, relatively little is known about the neural substrates underlying social learning and the degree to which different forms of learning share similar neural mechanisms. Here, we explored the neural substrates mediating social learning of novel threats from two different conspecific cues (i.e. social cue-based threat learning). We first demonstrated that guppies rapidly learn about threats paired with either alarm cues or with conspecific threat responses (demonstration). Then, focusing on acquisition rather than recall, we discovered that phospho-S6 expression, a marker of neural activity, was elevated in guppies during learning from alarm cues in the putative homologue of the mammalian lateral septum and the preoptic area. Surprisingly, these changes in neural activity were not observed in fish learning from conspecific demonstration. Together, these results implicate forebrain areas in social learning about threat but raise the possibility that circuits contribute to such learning in a stimulus-specific manner.
To ensure effective cetacean management and conservation policies, it is necessary to collect and rigorously analyze data about these populations. Remote sensing allows the acquisition of images over large observation areas, but due to the lack of reliable automatic analysis techniques, biologists usually analyze all images by hand. In this paper, we propose a human-in-the-loop approach to couple the power of deep learning-based automation with the expertise of biologists to develop a reliable artificial intelligence assisted annotation tool for cetacean monitoring. We tested this approach to analyze a dataset of 5334 aerial images acquired in 2017 by Fisheries and Oceans Canada to monitor belugas (Delphinapterus leucas) from the threatened Cumberland Sound population in Clearwater Fjord, Canada. First, we used a test subset of photographs to compare predictions obtained by the fine-tuned model to manual annotations made by three Observers, expert marine mammal biologists. With only 100 annotated images for training, the model obtained between 90% and 91.4% mutual agreement with the three Observers, exceeding the minimum inter-observer agreement of 88.6% obtained between the experts themselves. Second, this model was applied to the full dataset. The predictions were then verified by an Observer and compared to annotations made completely manually and independently by another Observer. The annotating Observer and the human-in-the-loop pipeline detected 4051 belugas in common, out of a total of 4572 detections for the Observer and 4298 for our pipeline. This experiment shows that the proposed human-in-the-loop approach is suitable for processing novel aerial datasets for beluga counting and can be used to scale cetacean monitoring. It also highlights that human observers, even experienced ones, have varied detection bias, underlining the need to discuss standardization of annotation protocols.
Understanding the regulation of social behavioural expression requires insight into motivational and performance aspects of social behaviours. While a number of studies have independently investigated motivational or performance aspects of social behaviours, few have examined how these aspects relate to each other. By comparing behavioural variation in response to live or video presentations of conspecific females, we analysed how variation in the motivation to produce courtship song covaries with variation in performance aspects of courtship song in male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). Consistent with previous reports, we observed that male zebra finches were less motivated to produce courtship songs to videos of females than to live presentations of females. However, we found that acoustic features that reflect song performance were not significantly between songs produced to videos of females and songs produced to live presentations of females. For example, songs directed at video presentations of females were just as fast and stereotyped as songs directed at live females. These experimental manipulations and correlational analyses reveal a dissociation between motivational and performance aspects of birdsong and suggest a refinement of neural models of song production and control. In addition, they support the efficacy of videos to study both motivational and performance aspects of social behaviours.
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