Social Stimulation of Vocal Learning

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

Major discoveries about how birds learn to sing have brought to light remarkable parallels with how human beings learn to speak. Just as human beings learn to speak the language that is spoken around them, many species of birds learn to sing the song that is sung by their neighbors. Just as human speech develops from infant babbling, bird song develops from simpler vocalizations of young birds. Drs. West and King have discovered that this development of song by male cowbirds is guided by visual signals from female cowbirds, just as signals from other people guide the development of speech by the human child. This important discovery of social shaping of vocal repertoires is the basis for the current research project, which will explore linkages between female perception and male vocal production in the development of avian communicative capacities. The species chosen for study, the brown-headed cowbird, is especially appropriate because it can be bred in captivity, affording the opportunity to study the development of individuals with known communicative histories. This research should lead to the delineation of new forms of non- imitative vocal learning, the elucidation of how reward mechanisms function in a naturally-occurring form of cultural transmission, and the investigation of how the visual system operates at behavioral and neural levels to affect vocal development.