Introductory gestures before songbird vocal displays are shaped by learning and biological predispositions |
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Authors: | Shikha Kalra Vishruta Yawatkar Logan S James Jon T Sakata Raghav Rajan |
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Institution: | 1.Division of Biology, Indian Institute of Science Education and Research Pune, Pune, India;2.Department of Biology, McGill University, Montreal, Canada;3.Centre for Research on Brain, Language and Music, McGill University, Montreal, Canada |
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Abstract: | Numerous animal displays begin with introductory gestures. For example, lizards start their head-bobbing displays with introductory push-ups, and many songbirds begin their vocal displays by repeating introductory notes (INs) before producing their learned song. Among songbirds, the acoustic structure and the number of INs produced before song vary considerably between individuals in a species. While similar variation in songs between individuals is a result of learning, whether variations in INs are also due to learning remains poorly understood. Here, using natural and experimental tutoring with male zebra finches, we show that mean IN number and IN acoustic structure are learned from a tutor. Interestingly, IN properties and how well INs were learned, were not correlated with the accuracy of song imitation and only weakly correlated with some features of songs that followed. Finally, birds artificially tutored with songs lacking INs still repeated vocalizations that resembled INs, before their songs, suggesting biological predispositions in IN production. These results demonstrate that INs, just like song elements, are shaped both by learning and biological predispositions. More generally, our results suggest mechanisms for generating variation in introductory gestures between individuals while still maintaining the species-specific structure of complex displays like birdsong. |
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Keywords: | introductory gestures songbird zebra finch learning biological predispositions |
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