Relationship between the Sequencing and Timing of Vocal Motor Elements in Birdsong.
Relationship between the Sequencing and Timing of Vocal Motor Elements in Birdsong.
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DOI：
10.1371/journal.pone.0143203
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发表时间：
2015
期刊：
影响因子：
3.7
通讯作者：
Sakata JT
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Matheson AM;Sakata JT
运动手势的顺序和时间的准确协调对于复杂的和进化相关的行为的执行是重要的。然而，马达测序和计时在多大程度上相关仍是个未知数。鸟鸣是一种交流行为，它由离散的发声运动元素(音节)组成，并以精确的方式进行排序和计时。为了揭示音节顺序和计时之间的关系，我们分析了在成年孟加拉雀鸟歌中，不同音节顺序的分支点和节点的音节转换概率的变化与音节转换之间沉默间隙持续时间的变化是如何相关的。我们观察到转换概率与空位持续时间之间存在显著的负相关关系：空位持续时间越短，转换越普遍。然后，我们评估了音节顺序和时序的长期依赖于年龄的变化和剧烈依赖于上下文的变化遵循这种反向关系的程度。对音节顺序和时序的改变与年龄呈负相关，而不是与语境相关。平均而言，分支点的空隙持续时间随着年龄的增长而减少，而且这种减少的幅度对于流行率增加的过渡比对于流行率下降的过渡更大。相比之下，对音节顺序的急性上下文相关变化与时序之间没有系统的关系。当鸟类产生雌性定向求爱歌曲时，分支点的间隙持续时间比它们产生非定向歌曲时减少，而且这种减少的幅度与转移概率变化的方向和幅度无关。这些分析表明，调节音节顺序的神经机制可以类似地控制音节时序，但也强调了可以独立调节音节顺序和时序的机制。
Accurate coordination of the sequencing and timing of motor gestures is important for the performance of complex and evolutionarily relevant behaviors. However, the degree to which motor sequencing and timing are related remains largely unknown. Birdsong is a communicative behavior that consists of discrete vocal motor elements (‘syllables’) that are sequenced and timed in a precise manner. To reveal the relationship between syllable sequencing and timing, we analyzed how variation in the probability of syllable transitions at branch points, nodes in song with variable sequencing across renditions, correlated with variation in the duration of silent gaps between syllable transitions (‘gap durations’) for adult Bengalese finch song. We observed a significant negative relationship between transition probability and gap duration: more prevalent transitions were produced with shorter gap durations. We then assessed the degree to which long-term age-dependent changes and acute context-dependent changes to syllable sequencing and timing followed this inverse relationship. Age- but not context-dependent changes to syllable sequencing and timing were inversely related. On average, gap durations at branch points decreased with age, and the magnitude of this decrease was greater for transitions that increased in prevalence than for transitions that decreased in prevalence. In contrast, there was no systematic relationship between acute context-dependent changes to syllable sequencing and timing. Gap durations at branch points decreased when birds produced female-directed courtship song compared to when they produced undirected song, and the magnitude of this decrease was not related to the direction and magnitude of changes to transition probabilities. These analyses suggest that neural mechanisms that regulate syllable sequencing could similarly control syllable timing but also highlight mechanisms that can independently regulate syllable sequencing and timing.