Song Perception During the Sensitive Period of Song Learning in Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata).

Abstract

The sensitive period is a special time for auditory learning in songbirds. However, little is known about perception and discrimination of song during this period of development. The authors used a go/no-go operant task to compare discrimination of conspecific song from reversed song in juvenile and adult zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), and to test for possible developmental changes in perception of syllable structure and syllable syntax. In Experiment 1, there were no age or sex differences in the ability to learn the discrimination, and the birds discriminated the forward from reversed song primarily on the basis of local syllable structure. Similar results were found in Experiment 2 with juvenile birds reared in isolation from song. Experiment 3 found that juvenile zebra finches could discriminate songs on the basis of syllable order alone, although this discrimination was more difficult than one based on syllable structure. The results reveal well-developed song discrimination and song perception in juvenile zebra finches, even in birds with little experience with song.

Conspecific-only experience during development reduces the strength of heterospecific song discrimination in Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata): a test of the optimal acceptance threshold hypothesis

“…These results of overall sex similarity are comparable to findings from females and males in previous song discrimination experiments (Braaten and Reynolds 1999;Riebel et al 2002;Braaten et al 2006;Campbell and Hauber 2009c) indicating the shared importance and implying a shared ontogenetic pathway of song perception preference between the sexes. Consistent with optimal acceptance threshold theory (Reeve 1989; Fig.…”

“…In light of the vast sex differences in the neuroanatomical (Wade and Arnold 2004) and behavioural (Zann 1996) song systems of the Zebra Finch, we might have expected distinct responses between female and male subjects, but our findings were more consistent with previous research that has indicated a lack of sex effect in song discrimination playback experimentation (Braaten and Reynolds 1999;Riebel et al 2002;Braaten et al 2006;Hauber et al 2007b). The only behavioural measure of discrimination that presented a significant sex difference was the measure of spatial discrimination.…”

“…Females were expected to be more discriminative than males, although evidence from recent song playback research indicates these effects might be minimal (Riebel et al 2002). It was also predicted that Control subjects would prefer the Zebra Finch songs but would differentiate between the crossfostered and Bengalese Finch songs (Clayton 1990;Clayton and Pröve 1989;Sturdy et al 1999;Braaten et al 2006). Finally, based on optimal acceptance theory (Reeve 1989) and the effects of differing rearing conditions on song development and behavioural responses (Neubauer 1999;Pytte and Suthers 1999;Riebel 2000Riebel , 2003Lauay et al 2004), it was predicted that Restricted subjects would show decreased discrimination between stimuli songs and overall decreased response to the novel stimuli.…”

A Behavioral Framework to Guide Research on Central Auditory Development and Plasticity

“…Songbirds, including juveniles, can be trained to discriminate among complex sounds and to demonstrate their perceptual preferences for sounds by approaching or eliciting the presentation of some sounds over others (Miller, 1979; Dent and Dooling, 2004; Braaten et al, 2006; Gess et al, 2011). Therefore, one can test for experience-dependent changes in perceptual skills over the course of postnatal development, and search for neural coding correlates (Grace et al, 2003; Woolley et al, 2005; Hauber et al, 2007; Phan and Vicario, 2006; Woolley et al, 2010; Schneider and Woolley, 2010).…”

Species differences in the identification of acoustic stimuli by birds

“…Both birds learn their vocalizations, but budgerigars continue to modify those vocalizations throughout their lives, while zebra finches generally learn one song as juveniles and continue to use that song throughout their life (e.g., Tchernichovski et al, 2001). Zebra finches can place song notes into categories (Sturdy et al, 1999(Sturdy et al, , 2001, and a recent study by Braaten et al (2006) showed that adult and juvenile zebra finches can also properly categorize songs versus reversed songs.…”