Date: June 12, 2017
Source: Uppsala Universitet
Juvenile birds discriminate and
selectively learn their own species' songs even when primarily exposed to the
songs of other species, but the underlying mechanism has remained unknown. A
new study, by researchers at Uppsala University, shows that song discrimination
arises due to genetic differences between species, rather than early learning
or other mechanisms. The results are published in Nature Ecology & Evolution.
Songbirds are our primary animal
model for studying the behavioral and neural basis of vocal learning and memory
formation in general. The tremendous variety in the songs of birds delights
ornithologists and fascinates evolutionary biologists as a marker of species
diversity. Explaining how species differences in song are maintained is a
challenge because birds typically learn their songs by imprinting on songs
heard when they were juveniles. What prevents juveniles from imprinting on the
songs from a wide-variety of other species in their environment? When exposed
to a mixture of different songs from their own and other species, juvenile
songbirds discriminate and selectively learn songs typical of their own
species, which suggests a remarkable fine-tuning of sound perception during the
earliest stages of development. Despite the importance of these findings for
our understanding of the vocal learning process, the mechanism underlying early
song discrimination has remained unknown.
