Collaborative Research: Development of song culture in zebra finches - vocal and sensory changes over generations

合作研究：斑胸草雀鸣叫文化的发展——几代人的声音和感官变化

• 批准号: 0956306
• 负责人: Henning Voss
• 金额: $ 29.96万
• 依托单位: Joan and Sanford I. Weill Medical College of Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-07-01 至 2016-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=0956306&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Development; song; culture

Culture consists of traits transmitted through social learning. One example for social learning is the acquisition of song by songbirds: During a sensitive period early in life, young males learn to imitate their father's song. Songbirds provide tractable models of culture: Members of a species show individual variation in song, and geographically separated groups have local song dialects, i.e., a local song culture. How does song culture develop over multiple generations? In zebra finches, birds kept isolated during the sensitive period develop an abnormal (isolate) song. Interestingly, in an isolated colony founded by an isolate, "normal" songs with species-typical features emerge within 3-4 generations, due to biased imitation that gradually transforms the isolate song into the species-typical song. Understanding how song develops in individual birds and how song culture develops in a community might require knowledge not only about the vocal, but also about the sensory-perceptual development across generations, as well as the social interactions which accompany it. This project is a combined study of social, vocal, and sensory aspects of song development. The investigators will design controlled social environments to examine dynamically how song is acquired and how song culture emerges. They will combine the continuous analysis of vocal changes and social interactions with non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain to investigate how auditory brain responses to songs develop, and how they drive cultural changes. Moreover, these researchers will test if developmental changes in brain architecture correlate with observed vocal and/or sensory changes using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI). This research will provide a bridge between studies of vocal and sensory changes and ethology studies of cultural changes in vocal communication. This project will contribute to the training of three graduate students, and provide scientific education and research training to undergraduate students as well as middle and high school students in the community.

文化由通过社会学习传播的特征组成。社会性学习的一个例子是鸣禽对歌声的习得：在生命早期的一个敏感时期，年轻的雄性鸣禽学会模仿父亲的歌声。鸣禽提供了易于处理的文化模型：一个物种的成员在鸣叫方面表现出个体差异，地理上分开的群体有当地的鸣叫方言，即当地的鸣叫文化。歌曲文化是如何在几代人之间发展的？在斑胸草雀中，在敏感期被隔离的鸟会发出异常的（孤立的）叫声。有趣的是，在一个孤立的群体中，由于有偏见的模仿，在3-4代内出现了具有物种典型特征的“正常”歌曲，逐渐将孤立的歌曲转变为物种典型的歌曲。理解单个鸟类的鸣叫是如何发展的，以及一个群体的鸣叫文化是如何发展的，可能不仅需要了解声音，还需要了解跨代的感觉-知觉发展，以及随之而来的社会互动。这个项目是对歌曲发展的社会、声乐和感官方面的综合研究。研究人员将设计受控的社会环境来动态地研究歌曲是如何获得的以及歌曲文化是如何出现的。他们将把对声音变化和社会互动的持续分析与大脑的非侵入性功能磁共振成像（fMRI）结合起来，研究大脑对歌曲的听觉反应是如何发展的，以及它们是如何推动文化变化的。此外，这些研究人员将使用扩散张量成像（DTI）来测试大脑结构的发育变化是否与观察到的声音和/或感觉变化相关。本研究将为发声与感觉变化的研究与发声交流文化变化的行为学研究提供一座桥梁。该项目将培养3名研究生，并为社区的本科生和初高中学生提供科学教育和研究培训。