Goal-directed vocal planning in a songbird

Songbirds’ vocal mastery is impressive, but to what extent is it a result of practice? Can they, based on experienced mismatch with a known target, plan the necessary changes to recover the target in a practice-free manner without intermittently singing? In adult zebra finches, we drive the pitch of a song syllable away from its stable (baseline) variant acquired from a tutor, then we withdraw reinforcement and subsequently deprive them of singing experience by muting or deafening. In this deprived state, birds do not recover their baseline song. However, they revert their songs toward the target by about 1 standard deviation of their recent practice, provided the sensory feedback during the latter signaled a pitch mismatch with the target. Thus, targeted vocal plasticity does not require immediate sensory experience, showing that zebra finches are capable of goal-directed vocal planning

Undirected singing rate as a non-invasive tool for welfare monitoring in isolated male zebra finches

Research on the songbird zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata) has advanced our behavioral, hormonal, neuronal, and genetic understanding of vocal learning. However, little is known about the impact of typical experimental manipulations on the welfare of these birds. Here we explore whether the undirected singing rate can be used as an indicator of welfare. We tested this idea by performing a post hoc analysis of singing behavior in isolated male zebra finches subjected to interactive white noise, to surgery, or to tethering. We find that the latter two experimental manipulations transiently but reliably decreased singing rates. By contraposition, we infer that a high-sustained singing rate is suggestive of successful coping or improved welfare in these experiments. Our analysis across more than 300 days of song data suggests that a singing rate above a threshold of several hundred song motifs per day implies an absence of an acute stressor or a successful coping with stress. Because singing rate can be measured in a completely automatic fashion, its observation can help to reduce experimenter bias in welfare monitoring. Because singing rate measurements are non-invasive, we expect this study to contribute to the refinement of the current welfare monitoring tools in zebra finches.Fil: Yamahachi, Homare. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Zai, Anja T.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Tachibana, Ryosuke O.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Stepien, Anna E.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Rodrigues, Diana I.. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Cavé Lopez, Sophie. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Lorenz, Corinna. Universite Paris Saclay; Francia. Universitat Zurich; SuizaFil: Arneodo, Ezequiel Matías. Universitat Zurich; Suiza. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - La Plata. Instituto de Física La Plata. Universidad Nacional de La Plata. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas. Instituto de Física La Plata; ArgentinaFil: Giret, Nicolas. Universite Paris Saclay; FranciaFil: Hahnloser, Richard H. R.. Universitat Zurich; Suiz

Visually-guided compensation of deafening-induced song deterioration

Human language learning and maintenance depend primarily on auditory feedback but are also shaped by other sensory modalities. Individuals who become deaf after learning to speak (post-lingual deafness) experience a gradual decline in their language abilities. A similar process occurs in songbirds, where deafness leads to progressive song deterioration. However, songbirds can modify their songs using non-auditory cues, challenging the prevailing assumption that auditory feedback is essential for vocal control. In this study, we investigated whether deafened birds could use visual cues to prevent or limit song deterioration. We developed a new metric for assessing syllable deterioration called the spectrogram divergence score. We then trained deafened birds in a behavioral task where the spectrogram divergence score of a target syllable was computed in real-time, triggering a contingent visual stimulus based on the score. Birds exposed to the contingent visual stimulus—a brief light extinction—showed more stable song syllables than birds that received either no light extinction or randomly triggered light extinction. Notably, this effect was specific to the targeted syllable and did not influence other syllables. This study demonstrates that deafness-induced song deterioration in birds can be partially mitigated with visual cues

Communication référentielle chez le perroquet gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus)

La communication référentielle correspond à la capacité de véhiculer des informations sur des objets et/ou événements de l'environnement. De plus en plus d'études suggèrent que la communication référentielle ne serait pas restreinte à la cognition humaine mais pourrait plutôt être basée sur des compétences complémentaires avec des origines diversifiées et évolutivement plus anciennes. L'objectif de ma thèse était d'identifier certaines aptitudes à communiquer de façon référentielle chez des perroquets gris du Gabon (Psittacus erithacus). Les études menées ont porté sur le comportement vocal des perroquets et sur leur capacité à comprendre des actes de communication hétérospécifique. Les perroquets ont produit des vocalisations spécifiques dans certaines situations, ont été capables d'apprendre quelques mots de façon référentielle, ont utilisé de façon appropriée et spontanée un geste de pointage humain saillant, mais pas le regard (exceptée pour un individu), ni des informations fournies par des congénères. Les perroquets ont enfin montré de bonnes capacités de discrimination de quantités dénombrables et indénombrables. Ces différentes études ont permis de mettre en évidence que le système de communication des perroquets gris leur permet de communiquer de façon référentielle.Referential communication corresponds to the ability to convey information about objects and/or events in the environment. Growing studies suggest that referential communication is not restricted to human cognition and could be based on complementary skills with various evolutionary origins. The aim of my thesis was to identify some of these referential communication skills in African grey parrots (Psittacus Erithacus). Studies were conducted on parrot vocal behaviour and their capacity to understand the behaviour of heterospecific communication. Parrots pruduced particular vocalizations in specific situations, were able to referentially learn French labels, and appropriately and spontaneously used a salient human pointing gesture, but not human gaze (except for one individual), or information provided by conspecifics. Parrots also showed the ability to discriminate discrete and continuous amounts. These studies showed that the communication system of- African grey parrots allow them to communicate referentially.NANTERRE-BU PARIS10 (920502102) / SudocSudocFranceF

Finding good acoustic features for parrot vocalizations: The feature generation approach

A crucial step in the understanding of vocal behavior of birds is to be able to classify calls in the repertoire into meaningful types. Methods developed to this aim are limited either because of human subjectivity or because of methodological issues. The present study investigated whether a feature generation system could categorize vocalizations of a bird species automatically and effectively. This procedure was applied to vocalizations of African gray parrots, known for their capacity to reproduce almost any sound of their environment. Outcomes of the feature generation approach agreed well with a much more labor-intensive process of a human expert classifying based on spectrographic representation, while clearly out-performing other automated methods. The method brings significant improvements in precision over commonly used bioacoustical analyses. As such, the method enlarges the scope of automated, acoustics-based sound classification

Communication system of African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus)

Parrots are well known for their imitative abilities of human speech. Since a few years, some research studies have highlighted complex cognitive skills of some parrot species, especially of African grey parrots. However, to date, complete studies on the vocal abilities of these birds are missing. We thus carried out different experiments to evaluate the specificity of their communication system. After a description of their vocal repertoire, we investigated whether some vocalizations are mainly produced in some situations. We also described a bioacoustic analysis method aiming to automatically extract acoustic features specific to a classification issue

Phonological-dependent territorial responses in yellowhammers (Emberiza citrinella)

International audienc

Distinct timescales for the neuronal encoding of vocal signals in a high-order auditory area

AbstractThe ability of the auditory system to selectively recognize natural sound categories while maintaining a certain degree of tolerance towards variations within these categories, which may have functional roles, is thought to be crucial for vocal communication. To date, it is still largely unknown how the balance between tolerance and sensitivity to variations in acoustic signals is coded at a neuronal level. Here, we investigate whether neurons in a high-order auditory area in zebra finches, a songbird species, are sensitive to natural variations in vocal signals by recording their responses to repeated exposures to identical and variant sound sequences. We used the songs of male birds which tend to be highly repetitive with only subtle variations between renditions. When playing these songs to both anesthetized and awake birds, we found that variations between songs did not affect the neuron firing rate but the temporal reliability of responses. This suggests that auditory processing operates on a range of distinct timescales, namely a short one to detect variations in vocal signals, and longer ones that allow the birds to tolerate variations in vocal signal structure and to encode the global context.</jats:p

Distinct timescales for the neuronal encoding of vocal signals in a high-order auditory area

AbstractThe ability of the auditory system to selectively recognize natural sound categories with a tolerance to variations within categories is thought to be crucial for vocal communication. Subtle variations, however, may have functional roles. To date, how the coding of the balance between tolerance and sensitivity to variations in acoustic signals is performed at the neuronal level requires further studies. We investigated whether neurons of a high-order auditory area in a songbird species, the zebra finch, are sensitive to natural variations in vocal signals by recording responses to repeated exposure to similar and variant sound sequences. We took advantage of the intensive repetition of the male songs which subtly vary from rendition to rendition. In both anesthetized and awake birds, responses based on firing rate during sequence presentation did not show any clear sensitivity to these variations, unlike the temporal reliability of responses based on a 10 milliseconds resolution that depended on whether variant or similar sequences were broadcasted and the context of presentation. Results therefore suggest that auditory processing operates on distinct timescales, a short one to detect variations in individual’s vocal signals, longer ones that allow tolerance in vocal signal structure and the encoding of the global context.</jats:p

Distinct timescales for the neuronal encoding of vocal signals in a high-order auditory area

International audienceAbstract The ability of the auditory system to selectively recognize natural sound categories while maintaining a certain degree of tolerance towards variations within these categories, which may have functional roles, is thought to be crucial for vocal communication. To date, it is still largely unknown how the balance between tolerance and sensitivity to variations in acoustic signals is coded at a neuronal level. Here, we investigate whether neurons in a high-order auditory area in zebra finches, a songbird species, are sensitive to natural variations in vocal signals by recording their responses to repeated exposures to identical and variant sound sequences. We used the songs of male birds which tend to be highly repetitive with only subtle variations between renditions. When playing these songs to both anesthetized and awake birds, we found that variations between songs did not affect the neuron firing rate but the temporal reliability of responses. This suggests that auditory processing operates on a range of distinct timescales, namely a short one to detect variations in vocal signals, and longer ones that allow the birds to tolerate variations in vocal signal structure and to encode the global context