The role of early acoustic experience in song discrimination

Abstract

Oscine songbirds are an ideal system for investigating how early experience affects behavior. Young songbirds face a challenging task: how to recognize and selectively learn only their own species' song, often during a time-limited window. Because birds are capable of 5 hearing birdsong very early in life, early exposure to song could plausibly affect recognition of appropriate models; however, this idea conflicts with the traditional view that song learning occurs only after a bird leaves the nest. Thus, it remains unknown whether natural variation in acoustic exposure prior to song learning affects the template for recognition. In a population where sister species, golden-crowned and white-crowned sparrows, breed syntopically, we found 10 that nestlings discriminate between heterospecific and conspecific song playbacks prior to the onset of song memorization. We then asked whether natural exposure to more frequent or louder heterospecific song explained any variation in golden-crowned nestling response to heterospecific song playbacks. We characterized the amount of each species' song audible in golden-crowned sparrow nests and showed that even in a relatively small area, the ratio of 15 heterospecific to conspecific song exposure varies widely. However, although many songbirds hear and respond to acoustic signals before fledging, golden-crowned sparrow nestlings that heard different amounts of heterospecific song did not behave differently in response to heterospecific playbacks. This study provides the first evidence that song discrimination at the onset of song learning is robust to the presence of closely related heterospecifics in nature, which 20 may be an important adaptation in sympatry between potentially interbreeding taxa.

Sex and drugs and rock and roll

“…We posit that this might occur similarly to how, according to Mehr et al, human babies attune to rhythmic vocalizations. In songbirds, these relatively coarse song-selection filters are thought to be innate, because studied species of songbirds react differently to conspecific vocalizations while still in the egg or nest (Colombelli-Négrel et al, 2012;Hudson, Creanza, & Shizuka, 2020;Hudson & Shizuka, 2017) and selectively learn conspecific song without prior exposure to it (Colombelli-Négrel et al, 2012;Marler & Peters, 1977;Soha & Marler, 2000). Selectivity in song learning varies widely between species and is based on species-specific song features, which can be sound properties of individual syllables (e.g., timbre or pitch modulation), or the pattern of these syllables.…”

Challenging infant-directed singing as a credible signal of maternal attention

“…We posit that this might occur similarly to how, according to Mehr et al, human babies attune to rhythmic vocalizations. In songbirds, these relatively coarse song-selection filters are thought to be innate, because studied species of songbirds react differently to conspecific vocalizations while still in the egg or nest (Colombelli-Négrel et al, 2012;Hudson, Creanza, & Shizuka, 2020;Hudson & Shizuka, 2017) and selectively learn conspecific song without prior exposure to it (Colombelli-Négrel et al, 2012;Marler & Peters, 1977;Soha & Marler, 2000). Selectivity in song learning varies widely between species and is based on species-specific song features, which can be sound properties of individual syllables (e.g., timbre or pitch modulation), or the pattern of these syllables.…”

Progress without exclusion in the search for an evolutionary basis of music

“…We posit that this might occur similarly to how, according to Mehr et al, human babies attune to rhythmic vocalizations. In songbirds, these relatively coarse song-selection filters are thought to be innate, because studied species of songbirds react differently to conspecific vocalizations while still in the egg or nest (Colombelli-Négrel et al, 2012;Hudson, Creanza, & Shizuka, 2020;Hudson & Shizuka, 2017) and selectively learn conspecific song without prior exposure to it (Colombelli-Négrel et al, 2012;Marler & Peters, 1977;Soha & Marler, 2000). Selectivity in song learning varies widely between species and is based on species-specific song features, which can be sound properties of individual syllables (e.g., timbre or pitch modulation), or the pattern of these syllables.…”