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: 1065678
• 负责人: Santosh Helekar
• 金额: $ 33万
• 依托单位: The Methodist Hospital Research Institute
• 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: 2010-08-10 至 2015-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1065678&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递的特征组成。社会学习的一个例子是鸣禽学会唱歌：在生命早期的一个敏感时期，年轻的雄性学习模仿他们父亲的歌声。鸣禽提供了易于处理的文化模式：一个物种的成员在歌声中表现出个体差异，而地理上分离的群体具有当地的歌唱方言，即当地的歌唱文化。歌文化是如何代代相传的？在斑马雀中，在敏感期被隔离的鸟类会产生一种不正常的(孤立的)歌声。有趣的是，在一个由隔离物种建立的孤立群体中，由于偏见的模仿逐渐将孤立的歌声转化为物种典型的歌声，具有物种典型特征的“正常”歌声会在3-4代内出现。要了解单个鸟类的歌声是如何发展的，以及一个群落中的歌唱文化是如何发展的，可能不仅需要了解声乐，还需要了解世代之间的感官-知觉发展，以及伴随着它的社会互动。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，以动态检查歌曲是如何获得的，以及歌曲文化是如何出现的。他们将把对声音变化和社交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，研究听觉大脑对歌曲的反应是如何发展的，以及它们如何推动文化变化。此外，这些研究人员将使用扩散张量成像(DTI)测试大脑结构的发育变化是否与观察到的发声和/或感觉变化相关。这项研究将在研究发声和感觉变化与研究声音交流中的文化变化的行为学研究之间架起一座桥梁。该项目将为培养三名研究生做出贡献，并为社区本科生和初中生提供科学教育和科研培训。