scholarly journals Auditory perception of self and others in zebra finches: evidence from an operant discrimination task

2021 ◽  
pp. jeb.233817
Author(s):  
Nicole Geberzahn ◽  
Sándor Zsebők ◽  
Sébastien Derégnaucourt
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Acoustic Similarity ◽  
Song Type ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Operant Discrimination ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Self Recognition ◽  
Laboratory Colonies ◽  
Perception Of Self

Vocal communication is essential for social interactions in many animal species. For this purpose an animal has to perceive vocal signals of conspecifics and is often also required to discriminate conspecifics. The capacity to discriminate conspecifics is particularly important in social species in which individuals interact repeatedly. In addition, auditory perception of self plays an important role for vocal learners. It allows a vocal learner to memorise vocalisations of conspecifics and to subsequently modify its own vocalisations in order to match the memorised vocalisations. Here we investigated auditory perception of self and others in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata), a highly gregarious songbird species and vocal learner. We used laboratory colonies in which founder males had been previously trained to produce the same song type. This resulted in artificial dialects in the song of founders and their offspring. We investigated whether those birds would be able to discriminate between familiar and unfamiliar conspecifics based on song. Furthermore, we examined whether they would classify their own song as familiar or unfamiliar. We found that birds were able to discriminate between songs of familiar versus unfamiliar conspecifics, despite the fact that all songs were imitations of the same song type. This suggests that such discrimination is possible even based on songs with a high acoustic similarity. None of the subjects classified their own song as unfamiliar. Three out of eight males classified their own song as familiar. Thus zebra finches might recognise their own song. Further experiments are needed to confirm such self-recognition.

scholarly journals Auditory Perception of Self-Similarity in Water Sounds

2011 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Maria N. Geffen ◽  
Judit Gervain ◽  
Janet F. Werker ◽  
Marcelo O. Magnasco
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Self Similarity ◽  
Perception Of Self

Vocal communication at the nest between mates in wild zebra finches: a private vocal duet?

2010 ◽  
Vol 80 (4) ◽  
pp. 597-605 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julie E. Elie ◽  
Mylène M. Mariette ◽  
Hédi A. Soula ◽  
Simon C. Griffith ◽  
Nicolas Mathevon ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Zebra Finches

scholarly journals High-capacity auditory memory for vocal communication in a social songbird

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (46) ◽  
pp. eabe0440
Author(s):  
K. Yu ◽  
W. E. Wood ◽  
F. E. Theunissen
Keyword(s):  
Zebra Finch ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
High Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Auditory Memory ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Social Species ◽  
Nonhuman Animals ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Conditioning Experiments

Effective vocal communication often requires the listener to recognize the identity of a vocalizer, and this recognition is dependent on the listener’s ability to form auditory memories. We tested the memory capacity of a social songbird, the zebra finch, for vocalizer identities using conditioning experiments and found that male and female zebra finches can remember a large number of vocalizers (mean, 42) based solely on the individual signatures found in their songs and distance calls. These memories were formed within a few trials, were generalized to previously unheard renditions, and were maintained for up to a month. A fast and high-capacity auditory memory for vocalizer identity has not been demonstrated previously in any nonhuman animals and is an important component of vocal communication in social species.

scholarly journals The perception of self-agency in chimpanzees ( Pan troglodytes )

2011 ◽  
Vol 278 (1725) ◽  
pp. 3694-3702 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takaaki Kaneko ◽  
Masaki Tomonaga
Keyword(s):  
External Environment ◽  
Human Cognition ◽  
Fundamental Aspect ◽  
Cognitive Mechanisms ◽  
Self Monitoring ◽  
Self Recognition ◽  
Monitoring Process ◽  
Spatial Dimensions ◽  
Perception Of Self

The ability to distinguish actions and effects caused by oneself from events occurring in the external environment is a fundamental aspect of human cognition. Underlying such distinctions, self-monitoring processes are often assumed, in which predicted events accompanied by one's own volitional action are compared with actual events observed in the external environment. Although many studies have examined the absence or presence of a certain type of self-recognition (i.e. mirror self-recognition) in non-human animals, the underlying cognitive mechanisms remain unclear. Here, we provide, to our knowledge, the first behavioural evidence that chimpanzees can perform self/other distinction for external events on the basis of self-monitoring processes. Three chimpanzees were presented with two cursors on a computer display. One cursor was manipulated by a chimpanzee using a trackball, while the other displayed motion that had been produced previously by the same chimpanzee. Chimpanzees successfully identified which cursor they were able to control. A follow-up experiment revealed that their performance could not be explained by simple associative responses. A further experiment with one chimpanzee showed that the monitoring process occurred in both temporal and spatial dimensions. These findings indicate that chimpanzees and humans share the fundamental cognitive processes underlying the sense of being an independent agent.

scholarly journals Songbirds as Objective Listeners: Zebra Finches (Taeniopygia guttata) Can Discriminate Infant-directed Song and Speech in Two Languages

2017 ◽  
Vol 30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie S. Phillmore ◽  
Jordan Fisk ◽  
Simone Falk ◽  
Christine D. Tsang
Keyword(s):  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Taeniopygia Guttata ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Acoustic Features ◽  
Clear Pattern ◽  
Human Infants ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Human Adults ◽  
Research Questions ◽  
Infant Study

Despite their acoustic similarities, human infants are able to discriminate between infant-directed song (as produced by human adults) and infant-directed speech in both English and Russian. However, experimenters are somewhat limited in what they can test using the preference paradigm with infants. As a complement to a previous infant study (Tsang et al. 2016), we asked whether a songbird, the zebra finch, could discriminate infant directed song and speech in English and Russian, and tested responses to stimuli that humans could not categorize as either type. Male and female zebra finches learned to discriminate the stimuli in both languages equally well, although females were slightly faster at learning the discrimination, and generalized responses to untrained stimuli of the same categories. Bird responses to stimuli that humans could not categorize likewise did not follow a clear pattern. Our results show that infant-directed song and speech are discriminable as categories by non-humans, that song and speech are as easy to discriminate in English and Russian, and that comparative studies together can provide more complete answers to research questions about auditory perception and acoustic features used for discrimination than using one species or one language alone.

scholarly journals Investigating Behavioral Responses to Mirrors and the Mark Test in Adult Male Zebra Finches and House Crows

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pooja Parishar ◽  
Alok Nath Mohapatra ◽  
Soumya Iyengar
Keyword(s):  
Adult Male ◽  
Behavioral Responses ◽  
Single Species ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Mark Test ◽  
Self Recognition ◽  
Taenopygia Guttata ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Rule Out ◽  
Do So

Earlier evidence suggests that besides humans, some species of mammals and birds demonstrate visual self-recognition, assessed by the controversial “mark” test. Whereas, there are high levels of inter-individual differences amongst a single species, some species such as macaques and pigeons which do not spontaneously demonstrate mirror self-recognition (MSR) can be trained to do so. We were surprised to discover that despite being widely used as a model system for avian research, the performance of zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata) on the mark test had not been studied earlier. Additionally, we studied the behavioral responses of another species of passerine songbirds (Indian house crows; Corvus splendens) to a mirror and the MSR mark test. Although a small number of adult male zebra finches appeared to display heightened responses toward the mark while observing their reflections, we could not rule out the possibility that these were a part of general grooming rather than specific to the mark. Furthermore, none of the house crows demonstrated mark-directed behavior or increased self-exploratory behaviors when facing mirrors. Our study suggests that self-directed behaviors need to be tested more rigorously in adult male zebra finches while facing their reflections and these findings need to be replicated in a larger population, given the high degree of variability in mirror-directed behaviors.

scholarly journals Acuity to Changes in Self-Generated Vocal Pitch in Parkinson's Disease

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (9) ◽  
pp. 3208-3214
Author(s):  
Defne Abur ◽  
Cara E. Stepp
Keyword(s):  
Parkinson’S Disease ◽  
Parkinson's Disease ◽  
Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Auditory Perception ◽  
Pitch Perception ◽  
Montreal Cognitive Assessment ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Vocal Pitch ◽  
Perception Of Self ◽  
The Impact

Purpose Given the role of auditory perception in voice production, studies have investigated whether impairments in auditory perception may underlie the noted disruptions in speech in Parkinson's disease (PD). Studies of loudness perception in PD show impairments in the perception of self-generated speech, but not external tones. Studies of pitch perception in PD have only examined external tones, but these studies differed in terms of the interstimulus intervals (ISIs) that were used, did not examine the impact of cognition, and report conflicting results. To clarify pitch perception in PD, this work investigated perception of self-generated vocal pitch, controlling for cognition and ISI. Method A total of 30 individuals with and without PD completed (a) hearing threshold testing, (b) the Montreal Cognitive Assessment, and (c) an adaptive just-noticeable-difference paradigm under two separate ISIs (100 ms and 1,000 ms) to assess acuity to self-generated vocal pitch. Results There was no significant difference in acuity between individuals with and without PD. Both groups demonstrated significantly worse acuity for longer compared to shorter ISIs. Montreal Cognitive Assessment scores were not a significant predictor of acuity. Conclusions The results suggest that acuity to self-generated vocal pitch does not differ between individuals with and without PD.

scholarly journals A novel paradigm for auditory discrimination training with social reinforcement in songbirds

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kirill Tokarev ◽  
Ofer Tchernichovski
Keyword(s):  
Reinforcement Learning ◽  
Vocal Communication ◽  
Auditory Stimuli ◽  
Social Reinforcement ◽  
Training Procedure ◽  
Zebra Finches ◽  
Juvenile Male ◽  
Visual Contact ◽  
Training Apparatus ◽  
Auditory Discrimination Training

Zebra finches are a highly social, gregarious, species and eagerly engage in vocal communication. We have developed a training apparatus that allows training zebra finches to discriminate socially reinforced and aversive vocal stimuli. In our experiments, juvenile male zebra finches were trained to discriminate a song that was followed by a brief air puff (aversive) and a song that allowed them to stay in visual contact with another bird, 'audience' (social song). During training, the birds learned quickly to avoid air puffs by escaping the aversive song within 2 sec. They escaped significantly more aversive songs than socially reinforced ones, and this effect grew stronger with the number of training sessions. Therefore, we propose this training procedure as an effective method to teach zebra finches to discriminate between different auditory stimuli, which may also be used as a broader paradigm for addressing social reinforcement learning. The apparatus can be built from commercially available parts, and we are sharing the software on our website.

Response and Reinforcement in Operant Audiometry

1987 ◽  
Vol 52 (3) ◽  
pp. 294-299 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael A. Primus
Keyword(s):  
Operant Conditioning ◽  
Space Versus ◽  
Visual Space ◽  
Central Processing ◽  
Operant Discrimination ◽  
Conditioning Rate ◽  
Significant Difference ◽  
Simple Detection ◽  
Variable Success ◽  
Response Task

Variable success in audiometric assessment of young children with operant conditioning indicates the need for systematic examination of commonly employed techniques. The current study investigated response and reinforcement features of two operant discrimination paradigms with normal I7-month-old children. Findings indicated more responses prior to the onset of habituation when the response task was based on complex central processing skills (localization and coordination of auditory/visual space) versus simple detection. Use of animation in toy reinforcers resulted in more than a twofold increase in the number of subject responses. Results showed no significant difference in response conditioning rate or consistency for the response tasks and forms of reinforcement examined.

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