Mechanisms underlying the social enhancement of vocal learning in songbirds

Abstract

Social processes profoundly influence speech and language acquisition. Despite the importance of social influences, little is known about how social interactions modulate vocal learning. Like humans, songbirds learn their vocalizations during development, and they provide an excellent opportunity to reveal mechanisms of social influences on vocal learning. Using yoked experimental designs, we demonstrate that social interactions with adult tutors for as little as 1 d significantly enhanced vocal learning. Social influences on attention to song seemed central to the social enhancement of learning because socially tutored birds were more attentive to the tutor's songs than passively tutored birds, and because variation in attentiveness and in the social modulation of attention significantly predicted variation in vocal learning. Attention to song was influenced by both the nature and amount of tutor song: Pupils paid more attention to songs that tutors directed at them and to tutors that produced fewer songs. Tutors altered their song structure when directing songs at pupils in a manner that resembled how humans alter their vocalizations when speaking to infants, that was distinct from how tutors changed their songs when singing to females, and that could influence attention and learning. Furthermore, social interactions that rapidly enhanced learning increased the activity of noradrenergic and dopaminergic midbrain neurons. These data highlight striking parallels between humans and songbirds in the social modulation of vocal learning and suggest that social influences on attention and midbrain circuitry could represent shared mechanisms underlying the social modulation of vocal learning.birdsong | catecholamines | attention | social influences | speech

How social learning adds up to a culture: from birdsong to human public opinion

“…But errors in song imitation are not entirely random: the accuracy of song imitation varies with environmental (Nowicki et al, 2002) and social (Chen et al, 2016;Tchernichovski and Nottebohm, 1998) conditions. Furthermore, there is evidence that the accuracy of song imitation may change adaptively -i.e.…”

“…In the other siblings, song imitation is partially inhibited, resulting in divergence (Tchernichovski and Nottebohm, 1998). This is not due to lack of opportunity to learn from a busy tutor: a recent study showed that the rate at which tutors produced song is inversely related to pupil attention and to song learning (Chen et al, 2016). Therefore, divergence appears to be an active process.…”

Vocal Interactivity in-and-between Humans, Animals, and Robots

“…Similarly, vocal learning (especially imitation and mimicry) is thought to be a key precursor of high-order vocal communication systems, such as language (Jarvis, 2006a,b;Lipkind et al, 2013), and only a subset of species exhibits vocal learning: parrots, songbirds, humming birds, humans, bats, dolphins, whales, sea lions, and elephants (Reiss and McCowan, 1993;Tchernichovski et al, 2001;Poole et al, 2005;Pepperberg, 2010;King and Janik, 2013;Chen et al, 2016). More recently, Watson et al (2015) have added chimpanzees to the list.…”

Studying audience effects in animals: what we can learn from human language research

“…Increases in signal production suggest the signaller has control over its signalling in response to audience characteristics. The second reason audience effects are important is because some examples suggest that signallers are aware of receivers’ perceptual states, and can modify their signal use accordingly (Chen et al, 2016; Tomasello & Zuberbühler, 2002; Townsend et al, 2016; Zuberbühler, 2008). For example, when male Thomas langurs, Presbytis thomasi , detect predator stimuli, they continue to produce alarm calls until all members of their group respond with a countercall (Wich & de Vries, 2006).…”

“…These types of signal modifications may also be more taxonomically widespread. Recent evidence from birds shows that adult zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata , tutors that direct songs to young male learners (pupils) include more repeated elements and longer spacing between song elements (Chen et al, 2016). These authors also found that tutors altered the fine structure of their songs by modifying mean frequency, spectral entropy and goodness of pitch in ways that appear to increase pupil attention and may improve pupil song learning.…”