Dynamics of the Vocal Imitation Process: How a Zebra Finch Learns Its Song

Tchernichovski, Ofer; Mitra, Partha P.; Lints, Thierry; Nottebohm, Fernando

doi:10.1126/science.1058522

Cited by 452 publications

(493 citation statements)

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“…At the behavioural level, song-learning birds go through a ''sensitive period'' early in life, when they must be exposed to normal conspecific song if they are to develop normal singing behaviour (Marler, 1987), paralleling the critical or sensitive periods documented for some aspects of language and music learning in humans (Newport, 1991;Trainor, 2005). Perhaps related, birds with vocal learning go through an immature stage where they produce highly variable song, termed ''subsong'', which develops towards an accurate rendition of their tutorsÕ song during a process of successive experimentation and approximation (Doupe & Kuhl, 1999;Tchernichovski, Mitra, Lints, & Nottebohm, 2001). This process, which creates a self-stimulatory auditory/motor loop, has been shown in a few species to be necessary for adequate song learning (cf.…”

Section: Parallels Between Birdsong Language and Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective

2006

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Studies of the biology of music (as of language) are highly interdisciplinary and demand the integration of diverse strands of evidence. In this paper, I present a comparative perspective on the biology and evolution of music, stressing the value of comparisons both with human language, and with those animal communication systems traditionally termed ''song''. A comparison of the ''design features'' of music with those of language reveals substantial overlap, along with some important differences. Most of these differences appear to stem from semantic, rather than structural, factors, suggesting a shared formal core of music and language. I next review various animal communication systems that appear related to human music, either by analogy (bird and whale ''song'') or potential homology (great ape bimanual drumming). A crucial comparative distinction is between learned, complex signals (like language, music and birdsong) and unlearned signals (like laughter, ape calls, or bird calls). While human vocalizations clearly build upon an acoustic and emotional foundation shared with other primates and mammals, vocal learning has evolved independently in our species since our divergence with chimpanzees. The convergent evolution of vocal learning in other species offers a powerful window into psychological and neural constraints influencing the evolution of complex signaling systems (including both song and speech), while ape drumming presents a fascinating potential homology with human instrumental music. I next discuss the archeological data relevant to music evolution, concluding on the basis of prehistoric bone flutes that instrumental music is at least 40,000 years old, and perhaps much older. I end with a brief review of adaptive functions proposed for music, concluding that no one selective force (e.g., sexual selection) is adequate to explaining all aspects of human music. I suggest that questions about ARTICLE IN PRESSthe past function of music are unlikely to be answered definitively and are thus a poor choice as a research focus for biomusicology. In contrast, a comparative approach to music promises rich dividends for our future understanding of the biology and evolution of music.

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Section: Parallels Between Birdsong Language and Musicmentioning

confidence: 99%

The biology and evolution of music: A comparative perspective

2006

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“…In this process, syllables of different types need not emerge from primitive versions of each of these types but originate in common prototypes (Tchernichovski et al, 2001). Therefore, HVC X neurons may first tune their approximate spike timing to the common syllable prototype before each syllable becomes differentiated in acoustic and syntactic aspects.…”

Section: Development Of Syntactic Selectivitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Coding of Syntactic Structure in Learned Vocalizations in the Songbird

Fujimoto¹,

Hasegawa

Watanabe

2011

Journal of Neuroscience

113

116

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Although vocal signals including human languages are composed of a finite number of acoustic elements, complex and diverse vocal patterns can be created from combinations of these elements, linked together by syntactic rules. To enable such syntactic vocal behaviors, neural systems must extract the sequence patterns from auditory information and establish syntactic rules to generate motor commands for vocal organs. However, the neural basis of syntactic processing of learned vocal signals remains largely unknown. Here we report that the basal ganglia projecting premotor neurons (HVC X neurons) in Bengalese finches represent syntactic rules that generate variable song sequences. When vocalizing an alternative transition segment between song elements called syllables, sparse burst spikes of HVC X neurons code the identity of a specific syllable type or a specific transition direction among the alternative trajectories. When vocalizing a variable repetition sequence of the same syllable, HVC X neurons not only signal the initiation and termination of the repetition sequence but also indicate the progress and state-of-completeness of the repetition. These different types of syntactic information are frequently integrated within the activity of single HVC X neurons, suggesting that syntactic attributes of the individual neurons are not programmed as a basic cellular subtype in advance but acquired in the course of vocal learning and maturation. Furthermore, some auditory-vocal mirroring type HVC X neurons display transition selectivity in the auditory phase, much as they do in the vocal phase, suggesting that these songbirds may extract syntactic rules from auditory experience and apply them to form their own vocal behaviors.

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“…In many species of songbird, adult song, once learned, is extremely stereotyped from one rendition to the next, and there may be little detectable change in acoustic structure over periods of months or even years (reviewed in Brainard and Doupe 2002;Doupe and Kuhl 1999;Tchernichovski et al 2001). Hence adult "crystallized" song provides an example of an extremely well-learned motor skill.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%