scholarly journals The role of early acoustic experience in song discrimination

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily J. Hudson ◽  
Nicole Creanza ◽  
Daizaburo Shizuka

AbstractOscine 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 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 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 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 may be an important adaptation in sympatry between potentially interbreeding taxa.

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily J. Hudson ◽  
Nicole Creanza ◽  
Daizaburo Shizuka

eLife ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Li ◽  
Hiroshi Ishimoto ◽  
Azusa Kamikouchi

In birds and higher mammals, auditory experience during development is critical to discriminate sound patterns in adulthood. However, the neural and molecular nature of this acquired ability remains elusive. In fruit flies, acoustic perception has been thought to be innate. Here we report, surprisingly, that auditory experience of a species-specific courtship song in developing Drosophila shapes adult song perception and resultant sexual behavior. Preferences in the song-response behaviors of both males and females were tuned by social acoustic exposure during development. We examined the molecular and cellular determinants of this social acoustic learning and found that GABA signaling acting on the GABAA receptor Rdl in the pC1 neurons, the integration node for courtship stimuli, regulated auditory tuning and sexual behavior. These findings demonstrate that maturation of auditory perception in flies is unexpectedly plastic and is acquired socially, providing a model to investigate how song learning regulates mating preference in insects.


2020 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Axel H. Newton ◽  
Andrew J. Pask

AbstractRunt-related transcription factor 2 (RUNX2) is critical for the development of the vertebrate bony skeleton. Unlike other RUNX family members, RUNX2 possesses a variable poly-glutamine, poly-alanine (QA) repeat domain. Natural variation within this repeat is able to alter the transactivation potential of RUNX2, acting as an evolutionary ‘tuning knob’ suggested to influence mammalian skull shape. However, the broader role of the RUNX2 QA repeat throughout vertebrate evolution is unknown. In this perspective, we examine the role of the RUNX2 QA repeat during skeletal development and discuss how its emergence and expansion may have facilitated the evolution of morphological novelty in vertebrates.


2021 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. 241-251
Author(s):  
Louis Bliard ◽  
Anna Qvarnström ◽  
David Wheatcroft

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zabaidah Haji Kamaludin

An Islamic system of governance is an ideal system, which is a tantalising objective for many Muslims but often times not achieved in practice. Countries may call themselves ‘Islamic’ but the core element of Islamicity, that of values such as compassion, equity and justice may not have breached the consciousness of their leaders and citizens. Sometimes it is individuals who act as the catalyst for sparking action. For a Muslim, it is his īmān that serves to light his conscience, and guiding him the dispensation of his everyday tasks within his organisation. This individualised īmān may at times serve as a small but critical factor tilting the different organisational functions of government towards integrations under an Islamic system of governance. This paper recounts the challenges of a Muslim engaging in legal issues in a non-Islamic context, seeking to help enable his organisation to undertake the role of incorporating non-Islamic law with Islamic values.


Author(s):  
Michael Gideon Josian ◽  
Maria Veronica Gandha

The future of dwelling has a very board context and will continue to be discussed, it is possible that the discussions about “dwelling” is come from the environment of farming and fishing. Things that are not much cared for but still have a role in the survival of the world. Therefore this matter will be discussed using the role of architecture as space, to be able to create an ideal system by paying attention to the quality of farming and fishing for the future, and leaving a trace or memory to be able to carry messages for the future. Talking about the future of an interaction that occurs between the general public and farmers and fishermen, especially considering that farmers and fishermen themselves can be compared to two different poles, a liminal space is needed, which may already exist indirectly in the environment. By letting go of individual egos and emphasizing ego to the point of view of farmers and fishermen. To present a common space, or a place that contains a special character of a city that contains a message for the future. Keywords:  dualism; hope; liminal; trace;  Abstrak Masa depan cara berhuni memiliki konteks yang sangat luas dan akan terus diperbincangkan. Tidak menutup kemungkinan datang dari pembahasan mengenai cara berhuni dengan bertani dan melaut. Hal yang tidak banyak dipedulikan tetapi tetap memiliki peran dalam kelangsungan dunia. Oleh karena itu, masa depan berhuni ini akan dibahas dengan menggunakan peran arsitektur sebagai ruang, untuk dapat menciptakan sistem yang ideal dengan memperhatikan kualitas bertani dan melaut bagi masa depan, dan meninggalkan sebuah jejak atau kenangan untuk dapat membawa pesan bagi masa depan. Berbicara mengenai masa depan dari sebuah interaksi yang terjadi antara masyarakat umum dengan para petani dan nelayan, apalagi mengingat para petani dan nelayan itu sendiri dapat diibaratkan berada pada kedua kutub yang berbeda, maka dibutuhkanlah sebuah ruang liminal, yang mungkin sudah hadir secara tidak langsung pada lingkungan masyarakat. Dengan cara melepaskan ego individual dan menekankan ego kepada sudut pandang para petani dan nelayan. Untuk menghadirkan sebuah ruang bersama, atau sebuah tempat yang mengandung sebuah karakter tersendiri dari sebuah kota yang berisi pesan bagi masa depan.


2009 ◽  
Vol 6 (suppl_2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rafael Maia ◽  
João Victor O Caetano ◽  
Sônia N Báo ◽  
Regina H Macedo

Iridescent coloration plays an important role in the visual communication system of many animal taxa. It is known that iridescent structural colours result from layers of materials with different refractive indexes, which in feathers usually are keratin, melanin and air. However, the role of these materials in the production of structural iridescent coloration is still poorly documented. Despite the great interspecific variation in the organization of such structures in bird plumage, melanin layers are usually considered too opaque, suggesting its main role is to delineate the outermost keratin layer and absorb incoherently scattered stray light. We combined spectrometry, electron microscopy and thin-film optical modelling to describe the UV-reflecting iridescent colour of feather barbules of male blue-black grassquits ( Volatinia jacarina ), characterized by a keratin layer overlying a single melanin layer. Our models indicate that both the keratin and the melanin layers are essential for production of the observed colour, influencing the coherent scattering of light. The melanin layer in some barbules may be thin enough to allow interaction with the underlying keratin; however, individuals usually have, on an average, the minimum number of granules that optimizes absorbance by this layer. Also, we show that altering optical properties of the materials resulted in better-fitting models relative to the empirically measured spectra. These results add to previous findings concerning the influence of melanin in single-layer iridescence, and stress the importance of considering natural variation when characterizing such photonic structures.


The Condor ◽  
2000 ◽  
Vol 102 (4) ◽  
pp. 814-822 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell D. Dawson ◽  
Gary R. Bortolotti

Abstract We investigated how natural variation in abundance and availability of the main prey of American Kestrels (Falco sparverius), small mammals, influenced provisioning rates by parents, and offspring size and survival. Provisioning behavior of kestrels was not constrained by the abundance of food in the environment; however, the availability of food, mediated through variation in weather, appeared to significantly influence parental provisioning behavior. Moreover, variation in weather had clear effects on reproductive success because nestlings exposed to inclement weather were smaller and lighter at fledging, and less likely to survive to fledging, compared to nestlings raised during good weather conditions. Prey abundance was not related to offspring size or survival. Our results suggest American Kestrels are limited by the availability, as opposed to abundance, of food on territories. It is likely that during our study, prey abundance was above some minimum threshold necessary to support successful reproduction, and so variation in weather affected reproduction more than variation in prey abundance.


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