多巴胺系统调控鸣禽鸣唱相关神经核团及鸣唱行为

鸣禽的鸣唱与人类的语言产生相似,是一种复杂的习得性行为.因此,鸣禽可以作为研究人类语言学习与产生的重要模式动物.鸣禽鸣唱受到相互联系的鸣唱控制核团调控.多巴胺作为脑内重要的神经递质,参与调控哺乳动物多种活动.多巴胺及其受体在鸣禽鸣唱相关神经核团大量分布.近期研究表明,多巴胺通过调控鸣唱相关核团,促进鸣禽幼年期鸣曲学习、成年期鸣曲保持以及求偶性鸣唱的产生.本文结合本课题组的研究工作,对近年鸣禽多巴胺系统调控鸣唱相关神经核团及鸣唱行为的研究进展进行了综述,并提出了多巴胺信号调控鸣禽鸣唱学习行为的潜在机制.     

鸟类鸣声初探

对鸟类鸣声的研究是生物声学研究中最为活跃的领域之一,对鸟鸣声的应用在很多方面具有十分广阔的前景。鸟类的鸣声可分为鸣唱和鸣叫,不同鸟类具有不同的鸣叫能力,可据此将鸟类分为鸣禽类和非鸣禽类两大类。文章初步综述了鸟类鸣声的相关知识,对鸣禽和非鸣禽发声器官的结构功能进行了比较。     

综述与专论: 鸣禽模型在语言学习中承担独特的生物学角色

鸣禽鸣唱与人类语言相似，是一种复杂的发声学习行为，并受脑中一组相互联系的神经核团调控。该组核团与人类发声控制相关脑区具有一定程度的结构同源性，并可能共享某些发声学习调控机制。因此，鸣禽成为研究发声学习神经机理的重要模式动物，不仅对鸟类语言学习，也可为揭示人类语言学习的神经过程和语言障碍的治疗提供重要参考借鉴。本文基于本课题组长期坚持的研究方向，较系统地概述了国内外鸣禽鸣唱行为研究的历史、重要发现和进展，及其为相关中枢神经系统疾病治疗带来的启示。     

鸟类鸣唱曲目与复杂性

鸟类的鸣唱是研究性选择和动物声音通讯的良好素材,一般认为鸟类的鸣唱曲目是性选择的结果.本文综述了鸣唱曲目和鸣唱复杂性的实验和理论成果,阐述二者的相关性,曲目和复杂鸣唱产生的解剖学基础及其得以进化形成的功能性原因.曲目和鸣唱的复杂性源于鸟类发声器官特定结构的复杂性和神经系统的协调作用,鸣唱的表现形式同时受多种因子影响,可根据改变的生境进行适应性调节.曲目和多种鸣唱型存在的必要性还在于其功能的多样性,鸟类借助于多种鸣唱型之间的转换,传达了有利于繁殖的多种信息.     

鸟鸣及其鸣唱控制系统发育可塑性研究进展

鸟类的鸣唱控制系统已成为研究神经系统与学习、行为和发育相关的一个重要模型。鸣禽鸣唱学习行为的神经基础为脊椎动物复杂习得行为的解剖学功能定位提供了一个范例。它也可为我们研究人类语言学习记忆提供借鉴,对近年来在鸟类鸣唱及其呜唱控制系统发育可塑性方面的研究进展进行了综述。     

中枢胆碱能系统投射支配鸣禽鸣唱控制系统并调控鸣唱行为

鸣禽因其独特的习得性鸣唱行为,成为了研究运动学习的理想模型。现已证实,鸣禽的鸣唱行为受前脑内的鸣唱控制系统直接调控。有证据显示,鸣唱控制系统内有胆碱能递质及其受体分布,其中发声运动核团接受来自基底前脑中枢胆碱能系统的胆碱能神经支配,其可通过胆碱能递质影响发声运动核团的神经活动,进而影响鸣唱行为。在哺乳动物中的研究证实,中枢胆碱能系统参与了对运动行为和运动学习神经过程的调控。了解中枢胆碱能系统对鸣禽鸣唱行为的调控作用,有助于更好地理解鸣禽鸣唱运动控制和鸣唱学习记忆的神经机制,并可从比较生理学的角度,为研究其它动物感觉运动和学习记忆的神经过程,乃至人类语言产生的神经过程提供重要参考。本文对迄今国内外在胆碱能递质对鸣禽发声运动核团作用受体的选择性及其对神经元活动影响的研究进展进行了综述,为揭示中枢胆碱能系统调控鸣禽鸣唱行为的神经机理提供有价值的线索。     

白头鹎鸣唱特征的季节差异分析

许多动物的声通讯行为存在显著的季节变化,鸟类的鸣唱也是如此。雄鸟鸣唱具有宣告领域和吸引配偶的功能,在繁殖季节与非繁殖季节之间应存在一定差异,但差异如何？具体表现在哪些方面？这在很多鸟类中尚未可知。本研究以一种在秋季也有显著鸣唱行为的城市常见小型鸣禽——白头鹎（Pycnonotussinensis）为研究对象,比较其在春季（繁殖季）与秋季（非繁殖季）的鸣唱差异,并分析可能的原因。于2020至2021连续两年的春、秋季分别在武汉地区各采集了27只和30只雄性白头鹎的鸣唱录音,共测量分析春季鸣唱372个,秋季鸣唱435个。对测得的各鸣唱参数数据进行季节间比较,结果显示,白头鹎的鸣唱持续时间和鸣唱音节数存在显著季节差异,春季鸣唱的持续时间较秋季更长,鸣唱音节数更多。鸣唱的频率、能量分布等其他声学参数,以及鸣唱型出现率（反映鸣唱曲目大小）均未表现出显著季节差异。白头鹎鸣唱的时程特征相对其他鸣声特征更具季节可塑性。此外,还发现同一采样点的白头鹎春、秋两季使用相同的鸣唱型。本研究结果表明,春季白头鹎的单位时间鸣唱输出量更大,鸣唱行为更活跃,这与繁殖季节鸟类的领域性更强、为繁殖成功投入更多相一致。白头...     

鸣禽研究的新纪元

在位置定位背包的帮助下,研究人员首次成功跟踪整个鸣禽全年迁徙路线。鸣禽一般重量为40至50克,而卫星跟踪仅能用于监测大型动物,并且无法进行长期跟踪。因此,研究人员对成群的鸣禽在短距离上的跟踪以及期间它们的停留地点的监测是很难完成的。不过研究人员还是能够计算出鸟类繁殖、休息和度过冬天的时间和地点,但这只限于整个群体。     

大鹰鹃鸣声的日节律

鸟类的鸣唱具有吸引配偶和保卫领域的功能,多为雀形目雄性鸟类发出,在其婚配、繁殖中起重要作用。非雀形目鸟类缺乏内鸣肌,发出的声音较为单调。但杜鹃科(Cuculidae)等少数非雀形目鸟类,利用鸣叫来吸引异性和宣示领域,功能上类似雀形目鸟类的鸣唱。鸟类在繁殖期面临觅食等基本生理活动与求偶行为的时间权衡。而鸣唱是雄性鸟类在繁殖期耗能较多的求偶行为,鸣唱的活跃程度受到外界环境和鸟类自身习性的影响。通过研究鸟类鸣声的日节律,有助于了解鸟类对生活史策略的响应。本研究于2016年和2017年鸟类繁殖季在北京小龙门森林公园(40°00′N,115°26′E)进行。2016年和2017年在大鹰鹃(Hierococcyx sparverioides)活动区利用录音机(美国Wildlife Acoustics公司,型号SM4)分别录制了3 d和43 d的录音。通过Kaleidoscope Pro 4.0.3软件(美国Wildlife Acoustics公司),量化录音并提取反应大鹰鹃鸣声特征的参数,进而自动识别出录音中大鹰鹃的鸣声。在优化识别条件后,对大鹰鹃鸣声识别的正确率可以达到60.26%,探测率可以达到44.71%。发现大鹰鹃有两个鸣叫的高峰,一个在3:00时,另一个在19:00时。与同域分布的其他鸟类相比,大鹰鹃鸣声的高峰时段持续的时间更长,且具有夜间鸣叫的特点。结合大鹰鹃的生活史,我们对其鸣声日节律进行了讨论。     

10种鸣禽控制鸣啭神经核团大小与鸣唱复杂性的相关性

为进一步揭示鸣禽鸣唱行为的神经生物学机制 ,本实验先对 8个科 10种鸣禽的鸣唱行为进行了观察和录音 ,并借助声谱软件分析了每种鸣禽的鸣唱复杂性。鸣唱语句复杂性的评价指标包括 :短语总数、每个短语中所含的平均音节数及音节种类数、所有短语的总音节数及音节种类数、最长短语的音节数及音节种类数。然后 ,测定了前脑三个鸣啭学习控制核团和一个与发声无关的视觉参考核团体积 ,分析了鸣唱语句复杂性和这些核团大小间的相关关系。结果表明 :1)HVC和HVC/Rt与 7种鸣唱语句复杂性指标无关 ;RA和RA/Rt与总音节种类数相关 ;AreaX与总音节数及音节种类数相关 ;2 )HVC/RA和HVC/X比值与多个鸣唱语句复杂性指标相关。结果提示 :鸣禽鸣唱复杂性不同特征可能受不同神经控制     

Acoustic localization of terrestrial wildlife: Current practices and future opportunities

Autonomous acoustic recorders are an increasingly popular method for low‐disturbance, large‐scale monitoring of sound‐producing animals, such as birds, anurans, bats, and other mammals. A specialized use of autonomous recording units (ARUs) is acoustic localization, in which a vocalizing animal is located spatially, usually by quantifying the time delay of arrival of its sound at an array of time‐synchronized microphones. To describe trends in the literature, identify considerations for field biologists who wish to use these systems, and suggest advancements that will improve the field of acoustic localization, we comprehensively review published applications of wildlife localization in terrestrial environments. We describe the wide variety of methods used to complete the five steps of acoustic localization: (1) define the research question, (2) obtain or build a time‐synchronizing microphone array, (3) deploy the array to record sounds in the field, (4) process recordings captured in the field, and (5) determine animal location using position estimation algorithms. We find eight general purposes in ecology and animal behavior for localization systems: assessing individual animals' positions or movements, localizing multiple individuals simultaneously to study their interactions, determining animals' individual identities, quantifying sound amplitude or directionality, selecting subsets of sounds for further acoustic analysis, calculating species abundance, inferring territory boundaries or habitat use, and separating animal sounds from background noise to improve species classification. We find that the labor‐intensive steps of processing recordings and estimating animal positions have not yet been automated. In the near future, we expect that increased availability of recording hardware, development of automated and open‐source localization software, and improvement of automated sound classification algorithms will broaden the use of acoustic localization. With these three advances, ecologists will be better able to embrace acoustic localization, enabling low‐disturbance, large‐scale collection of animal position data.     

Divergence in mating signals correlates with genetic distance and behavioural responses to playback

Animals use acoustic signals to defend resources against rivals and attract breeding partners. As with many biological traits, acoustic signals may reflect ancestry; closely related species often produce more similar signals than do distantly related species. Whether this similarity in acoustic signals is biologically relevant to animals is poorly understood. We conducted a playback experiment to measure the physical and vocal responses of male songbirds to the songs of both conspecific and allopatric‐congeneric animals that varied in their acoustic and genetic similarity. Our subjects were territorial males of four species of neotropical Troglodytes wrens: Brown‐throated Wrens (Troglodytes brunneicollis), Cozumel Wrens (T. beani), Clarion Wrens (T. tanneri) and Socorro Wrens (T. sissonii). Our results indicate that birds respond to playback of both conspecific and allopatric‐congeneric animals; that acoustic differences increase with genetic distance; and that genetic divergence predicts the strength of behavioural responses to playback, after removing the effects of acoustic similarity between subjects’ songs and playback stimuli. Collectively, these results demonstrate that the most distantly related species have the most divergent songs; that male wrens perceive divergence in fine structural characteristics of songs; and that perceptual differences between species reflect evolutionary history. This study offers novel insight into the importance of acoustic divergence of learned signals and receiver responses in species recognition.     

Signalling through acoustic windows: nightingales avoid interspecific competition by short-term adjustment of song timing

The function of bird song is closely linked to sexual selection through female choice and male–male competition, and thus variation in communication success is likely to have major fitness consequences for a singing male. A crucial constraint on signal transmission is imposed by background noise, which may include songs from other species. I investigated whether singing nightingales (Luscinia megarhynchos) avoid temporal overlap with the songs of other bird species in a playback experiment. I analysed the temporal song patterns of six males, each of which were exposed to songs of other species. The nightingales significantly avoided overlapping their songs with the playback songs, and started singing preferentially during the silent intervals between the heterospecific songs. This timing of song onset produced a greater variability in pause duration compared to the nightingales’ undisturbed solo singing. These findings suggest that birds adjust their song timing to avoid acoustic interference on short temporal scales, and thus are able to improve the efficiency of acoustic communication in complex sonic environments. Moreover, the results indicate that temporal song patterns can be affected by the songs of other species, and thus such influences should be taken into account when studying bird song in the field.     

No Effect of Body Size on the Frequency of Calling and Courtship Song in the Two-Spotted Cricket,Gryllus bimaculatus

The relationship between body size and vocalization parameters has been studied in many animal species. In insect species, however, the effect of body size on song frequency has remained unclear. Here we analyzed the effect of body size on the frequency spectra of mating songs produced by the two-spotted cricket, Gryllus bimaculatus. We recorded the calling songs and courtship songs of male crickets of different body sizes. The calling songs contained a frequency component that peaked at 5.7 kHz. On the other hand, courtship songs contained two frequency components that peaked at 5.8 and 14.7 kHz. The dominant frequency of each component in both the calling and courtship songs was constant regardless of body size. The size of the harp and mirror regions in the cricket forewings, which are the acoustic sources of the songs, correlated positively with body size. These findings suggest that the frequency contents of both the calling and courtship songs of the cricket are unaffected by whole body, harp, or mirror size.     

Non‐Salient Geographic Variation in Birdsong in a Species That Learns by Improvisation

Geographic variation in birdsong and differential responses of territorial males to local and non‐local song variants have been documented in a number of songbird species in which males learn their songs through imitation. Here, we investigated geographic song variation and responses to local and non‐local song in the grasshopper sparrow (Ammodramus savannarum), a species in which males develop song by improvisation rather than imitation, as a first step toward understanding how the extent and salience of geographic song variation is related to the mode of song development. To describe the geographic variation in song, we compared songs from populations in eastern Maryland and central Ohio, USA, using multiple acoustic analysis techniques. We then conducted a playback experiment in Maryland using local and non‐local (Ohio) songs to test how territorial males responded to this geographic variation. We found acoustic differences between songs from the two sites. However, males responded similarly to playback of these songs, suggesting that this geographic variation is not behaviorally salient in a territorial context. Together with previous studies, our results suggest that across species, geographic song variation and the extent to which this variation functions in communication may be correlated with the accuracy with which song models are imitated during song development.     

Geographic variation in bird songs: examination of the effects of sympatric related species on the acoustic structure of songs

Birdsong evolution has influenced by various ecological and social factors. When related species that sing similar songs coexist, the acoustic properties of the songs of one or both species may shift, and the songs may diverge. We investigated geographic variation in the songs of the Japanese tit (Parus minor) and the varied tit (Poecile varius) in the Ryukyu Archipelago, Japan, whose islands harbor either one or both species. The songs of the two species exhibited similar structure, but acoustic measurements differed between them. For example, varied tits sang songs at higher frequency than Japanese tits did. The songs of both species varied geographically. At sites with higher relative densities of varied tits, Japanese tits sang lower frequency songs, indicating that in areas of coexistence, Japanese tits sang songs that had acoustically diverged from those of varied tits. Song variation in varied tits was not related to sympatry with Japanese tits. These asymmetric results suggest that the subordinate Japanese tit modified the acoustic characteristics of its song to avoid harassment by the dominant varied tit. We observed no effects of genetic divergence or local intraspecific density on Japanese tit or varied tit songs. This study used geographic variation to examine hypotheses of song evolution, and the results highlight the importance of character displacement.     

Context-dependent functions of avian duets revealed by microphone-array recordings and multispeaker playback

In many tropical animals, male and female breeding partners combine their songs to produce vocal duets [1-5]. Duets are often so highly coordinated that human listeners mistake them for the songs of a single animal [6]. Behavioral ecologists rank duets among the most complex vocal performances in the animal kingdom [7, 8]. Despite much research, the evolutionary significance of duets remains elusive [9], in part because many duetting animals live in tropical habitats where dense vegetation makes behavioral observation difficult or impossible. Here, we evaluate the duetting behavior of rufous-and-white wrens (Thryothorus rufalbus) in the humid forests of Costa Rica. We employ two innovative technical approaches to study duetting behavior: an eight-microphone acoustic location system capable of triangulating animals' positions on the basis of recordings of their vocalizations [10] and dual-speaker playback capable of simulating duets in a spatially realistic manner [11]. Our analyses provide the first detailed spatial information on duetting in both a natural context and during confrontations with rivals. We demonstrate that birds perform duets across highly variable distances, that birds approach their partner after performing duets, and that duets of rivals induce aggressive, sex-specific responses. We conclude that duets serve distinct functions in aggressive and nonaggressive contexts.     

Acoustic structure of male loud-calls support molecular phylogeny of Sumatran and Javanese leaf monkeys (genus <Emphasis Type="Italic">Presbytis</Emphasis>)

Background  

The degree to which loud-calls in nonhuman primates can be used as a reliable taxonomic tool is the subject of ongoing debate. A recent study on crested gibbons showed that these species can be well distinguished by their songs; even at the population level the authors found reliable differences. Although there are some further studies on geographic and phylogenetic differences in loud-calls of nonhuman primate species, it is unclear to what extent loud-calls of other species have a similar close relation between acoustic structure, phylogenetic relatedness and geographic distance. We therefore conducted a field survey in 19 locations on Sumatra, Java and the Mentawai islands to record male loud-calls of wild surilis (Presbytis), a genus of Asian leaf monkeys (Colobinae) with disputed taxanomy, and compared the structure of their loud-calls with a molecular genetic analysis.     

Temporally adaptive acoustic sampling to maximize detection across a suite of focal wildlife species

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