The function of pulse song and sine song in the courtship of Drosophila melanogaster

Drosophila melanogaster females were subjected to pulse song before being allowed to mix with males. Sine song increases female receptivity, pulse song does not. Pulse song does however increase receptivity if the females are subjected to it while being courted by males which are deaf and which cannot produce any auditory stimulation themselves. It is suggested that sine song is summated and has a priming effect on female receptivity whereas pulse song functions as a species recognition signal in a trigger-like fashion.     

The cultural transmission of bird song

Songbirds learn the songs that they sing from other individuals, but the learning is not always accurate. This leads to dialects and to changes with time in the songs found in one place. Are these phenomena functional or are they simply byproducts of vocal learning which has evolved for quite different reasons?     

The importance of calling song and courtship song in female mate choice in the variable field cricket

Male field crickets produce calling songs, courtship songs, tactile signals and chemical signals. Although calling songs are known to play an important role in female mate choice, the importance of the other signals in mate choice is poorly understood. In the variable field cricket, Gryllus lineaticeps, females select mates, in part, based on variation in male calling song. Females prefer higher chirp rates, a trait which is partially dependent on male nutrient intake, and females prefer longer chirp durations, a trait which appears to be independent of male nutrient intake. We tested whether females also have preferences based on variation in male courtship song, and whether the structure of male courtship song varies with nutrient intake. First, we reexamined female preference for calling song chirp rate. Then, we examined: (1) female preference based on courtship song chirp rate; (2) the relative importance of calling song and courtship song chirp rate; (3) the nutrition dependence of courtship song chirp rate; and (4) the correlation between calling song and courtship song chirp rate. As reported previously, females preferred higher calling song chirp rates, and in addition, preferred higher courtship song chirp rates. Females were more likely to switch from a speaker broadcasting more attractive calling song to a speaker broadcasting less attractive calling song when the attractive calling song was associated with an unattractive courtship song than when it was associated with an attractive courtship song. Preferences based on courtship song may thus cause females to alter the choices that they made based on calling song. Males that received greater nutrients did not produce higher courtship song chirp rates. There was no correlation between calling song and courtship song chirp rate. As a result, the two traits may provide information to females about different aspects of male quality. Copyright 2000 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour.     

致聋对鸣禽鸣唱行为的影响

鸣禽的鸣啭系统已是当今研究学习和记忆的重要模型。鸣禽的鸣啭学习包括2个阶段：感觉学习期和感觉-运动学习期,以及鸣唱运动和鸣唱学习2条通路。鸣禽的鸣唱行为依赖于听觉反馈系统,现已经证明致聋会使鸣曲结构发生变化,主要对近年来在致聋与鸣唱行为的影响及一些电生理变化研究方面进行介绍。     

Alternative forms of song matching in song sparrows

Song matching, replying to a song with a similar song, occurs in many songbird species. Almost all investigations of song matching have been of type matching, where one bird's reply is unambiguously similar to the other's song (i.e. the same song type). In many populations, however, neighbours do not share song types, and therefore cannot type-match. We hypothesized that a bird lacking a true type match could still song-match a stimulus song with a song from his repertoire that was similar in some way the birds recognized. We tested this hypothesis in song sparrows, Melospiza melodia, in two playback experiments. We played the subject a stranger song that was similar to one or more of his songs, but a type match to none of them. In the first experiment, we used playback songs that began with two buzzes (‘double-buzz’ songs). In the second experiment, we used songs that began with a slow trill that increased in tempo ('speed-up' songs). Birds replied at rates significantly above chance with their own double-buzz, or speed-up song match to the respective types of playback. The results suggest that birds who do not share true song types, can still song-match each other. This broad-sense form of song matching may also occur in populations with low song type sharing. Copyright 2002 The Association for the Study of Animal Behaviour. Published by Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.     

Territorial song and song neighbourhoods in the Scarlet Rosefinch Carpodacus erythrinus

Throughout the range of the Scarlet Rosefinch, its territorial song consists of 3–9 (usually 4–5) elements, of which there are 5 different types. The differences lie in the way the pitch of the element changes in time (frequency "slope") and the width of the frequency band. Within a given type of song, the various elements can be present in almost any combination. Therefore, so many song types can be formed that the songs in even small parts of the species' area are clearly distinct from one another. Despite this capacity for variation, however, by chance identical songs may be sung in widely separated parts of the area, in some cases by different subspecies.
The species has not developed large-scale dialects or regiolects based on a song tradition acquired during an early imprinting phase. Scarlet Rosefinches tend to breed in small colonies, groups of up to about 15 pairs characterized by the same type of song (song neighbourhoods, formed by the development of a microlect).
Microlects develop by a founder effect. When males, near one-year old or older, join one another to form isolated colonies after arrival in the breeding region, they adopt ("learn") the song type that will eventually characterize the colony from the first male to arrive at the site. After the colony has been founded, in most cases each male uses only one type of song during a breeding season, with practically no variation of the temporal and frequency parameters.
Singing the same type of song, the members of a colony accept one another sufficiently to allow the breeding territories to be closely packed. It appears that a long-lasting capacity for acoustic learning, in combination with colony-like breeding and great ecological flexibility, has allowed the Scarlet Rosefinch to become the most successful species of the genus Carpodacus .     

The courtship song of African Drosophila melanogaster

For many years it was thought that Drosophila melanogaster was relatively panmictic, without differentiation in the Mate Recognition System. Recent studies have demonstrated that flies from Africa vary in pheromones and assortative mating. Strains from Zimbabwe show strong sexual isolation from others. We show that the interpulse interval (IPI) of courtship song, an important mating signal, is unusually short among African flies. Zimbabwean flies have the shortest IPI, but there is no correlation with assortative mating, suggesting little direct role in sexual isolation. Chromosome replacements show that the IPI difference is largely due to genes on chromosome III, with significant interactions involving other chromosomes. Several traits potentially influencing sexual isolation among the melanogaster group of Drosophila seem to be localized to this chromosome. A concentration of important genetic differences might mean that the interaction effects reflect secondary coadaptation of the genetic background to changes associated with chromosome III.     

The anti-exhaustion hypothesis: a new hypothesis to explain song performance and song switching in the great tit

This paper describes the results of a detailed analysis of 52 song bouts, recorded from 22 great tits, Parus major, during the dawn chorus. A song bout consists of a number of song bursts (called strophes) separated by periods of silence. High quality males, as measured by average strophe length, sang their bouts with a higher percentage performance time (i.e. the percentage of time spent singing in a bout), but the average number of strophes per bout was not related to male quality. In 31 of 52 bouts there was a systematic decrease in the percentage performance time throughout the bout. This was mainly caused by a prolongation of the pauses between the strophes, and sometimes by a shortening of the strophes. Both high and low quality males sang bouts with and without this decrease in the percentage performance time. Bouts that started with longer strophes and/or shorter inter-strophe pauses showed on average a more rapid decrease in the percentage performance time, and contained fewer strophes, than bouts that started with shorter strophes and/or longer inter-strophe pauses. After switching to another song type the males again used longer strophes and/or shorter inter-strophe pauses. An ‘anti-exhaustion’ hypothesis is proposed and discussed. This hypothesis gives a mainly causal explanation for the existence of song switching and song repertoires in passerine birds.     

The singer and the song: The neuromechanics of avian sound production

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Song matching in a long-lived,sedentary bird with a low song rate: The importance of song type,song duration and intrusion

Territorial songbirds often match the song features or singing patterns of rivals, commonly as an aggressive signal. Most studies of song matching have been on Northern Hemisphere species with short lifespans and high song rates, but vocal matching is predicted to be affected both by longevity and territorial stability. We studied song matching in males of the white-browed scrubwren, Sericornis frontalis, a long-lived, sedentary, territorial Australian songbird. We quantified natural song rate and diversity, and then conducted three playback experiments to test: (a) whether males match by song type; (b) how they respond physically and vocally to territorial intrusion; and (c) whether they match by song length, and use it as an agonistic signal. Males naturally had very low song rates, singing on average less than three times per hour, and moderate repertoires, with an estimated mean of 17.5 song types for individual males. Males did not engage in extended counter-singing bouts. The first experiment showed that males matched the song type of immediate neighbours almost 90% of the time, if that type was in their repertoire. The remaining experiments revealed that song-type matching was an aggressive signal; males responded more aggressively to, and were more likely to match, playback simulating a neighbour's territorial intrusion than song from their shared boundary. Males did not match songs by length, but they produced longer songs after simulated intrusion. Males also responded more aggressively to playback of longer songs that simulated intrusion, but less aggressively to longer songs from the territory boundary. Overall, we show that sedentary, long-lived songbirds with low song rates, can use song-type matching as an aggressive signal to communicate with neighbours and intruders. Song length had a different role in communication, possibly related to individual quality or territory ownership.     

Dynamic gene expression in the song system of zebra finches during the song learning period

The brain circuitry that controls song learning and production undergoes marked changes in morphology and connectivity during the song learning period in juvenile zebra finches, in parallel to the acquisition, practice and refinement of song. Yet, the genetic programs and timing of regulatory change that establish the neuronal connectivity and plasticity during this critical learning period remain largely undetermined. To address this question, we used in situ hybridization to compare the expression patterns of a set of 30 known robust molecular markers of HVC and/or area X, major telencephalic song nuclei, between adult and juvenile male zebra finches at different ages during development (20, 35, 50 days post‐hatch, dph). We found that several of the genes examined undergo substantial changes in expression within HVC or its surrounds, and/or in other song nuclei. They fit into broad patterns of regulation, including those whose expression within HVC during this period increases (COL12A1, COL 21A1, MPZL1, PVALB, and CXCR7) or decreases (e.g., KCNT2, SAP30L), as well as some that show decreased expression in the surrounding tissue with little change within song nuclei (e.g. SV2B, TAC1). These results reveal a broad range of molecular changes that occur in the song system in concert with the song learning period. Some of the genes and pathways identified are potential modulators of the developmental changes associated with the emergence of the adult properties of the song control system, and/or the acquisition of learned vocalizations in songbirds. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 75: 1315–1338, 2015