DISSERTATION RESEARCH: The Role of Learning in Duet Development and Sex-specific Repertoire Acquisition in Plain Wrens

论文研究：学习在鹪鹩二重奏发展和性别特异性曲目习得中的作用

• 批准号: 1501357
• 负责人: William Searcy
• 金额: $ 1.64万
• 依托单位: University of Miami
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-08-01 至 2016-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1501357&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: DISSERTATION; RESEARCH; Role; Learning; Duet

Many animals communicate vocally according to a set of rules. In human conversation for example, individuals avoid overlapping each other, a rule known as "turn taking." Another rule in human conversation, "pair adjacency," dictates that certain responses should follow certain utterances: a greeting should be answered by another greeting, for example, and a question should be followed by an answer. Human conversation is difficult to study because of its complexity, and therefore a need has been recognized for interdisciplinary studies that investigate interaction rules in simpler animal models. This study will address potential biological examples of both turn taking and pair adjacency in a duetting Neotropical bird: the plain wren. This study will be one of the first to address experimentally the development of song in a duetting species and the first to address experimentally the development of the interaction rules that govern duets. Furthermore, this study will support the education of local field guides as well as both Latin and American undergraduates by recruiting them for laboratory and field work.Mated pairs in various songbirds sing together to produce duets. In some species, including the plain wren, the male and female of a pair alternate their songs so rapidly and precisely that it sounds as if a single individual is singing. In many species that duet, again including the plain wren, males and females have repertoires of sex-specific song elements and follow a "duet code" that specifies which syllable of one sex is used to answer a particular syllable from the other sex. This research will provide the first thorough study of how aspects of duets such as precise temporal coordination, sex-specific elements, and duet codes develop. Plain wrens will be hand-reared in captivity and tutored either with duets and solo songs or with solo songs only. This experiment will answer four main questions: 1) Do plain wrens need experience of duet singing during early development to be able to duet with temporal precision? 2) Do plain wrens have an innate predisposition to learn their own sex-specific songs? 3) Are duet codes learned from duets heard during the early stages of life? 4) Can duet codes be altered after individuals have reached adulthood? A list of published material and primary data available upon request will be posted on the Principal Investigator's laboratory website (http://www.bio.miami.edu/searcylab/karla.html) after publication.

许多动物根据一套规则进行声音交流。例如，在人类对话中，个体避免彼此重叠，这一规则被称为“轮流”。人类对话的另一个规则是“配对邻接”，它规定了特定的回应应该遵循特定的话语：例如，一个问候应该用另一个问候来回答，一个问题应该用一个答案来回答。人类对话由于其复杂性而难以研究，因此人们认识到有必要进行跨学科研究，以调查更简单的动物模型中的互动规则。本研究将探讨一种新热带地区的二重唱鸟类——平原鹪鹩的轮流和配对邻接的潜在生物学例子。这项研究将是第一个通过实验解决二重唱物种中歌曲发展的研究之一，也是第一个通过实验解决二重唱相互作用规则发展的研究。此外，这项研究将通过招募当地的野外向导以及拉丁美洲和美洲的本科生从事实验室和野外工作来支持对他们的教育。各种鸣禽的配偶一起歌唱，形成二重唱。在包括平原鹪鹩在内的一些物种中，一对鹪鹩中的雄性和雌性交替鸣叫的速度如此之快、如此精确，以至于听起来就像一只单独的鹪鹩在唱歌。在许多有二重唱的物种中，包括平原鹪鹩，雄性和雌性都有特定性别的歌曲元素，并遵循“二重唱代码”，指定用一个性别的哪个音节来回答另一个性别的特定音节。这项研究将首次深入研究二重唱的各个方面，如精确的时间协调、性别特异性元素和二重唱编码是如何发展的。平原鹪鹩将被人工饲养，并以二重唱和独唱或独奏歌曲进行辅导。这个实验将回答四个主要问题：1)普通鹪鹩在发育早期是否需要二重唱的经验才能在时间上精确地二重唱？2)普通鹪鹩是否天生就有学习特定性别歌曲的倾向？3)二重唱的密码是在生命的早期阶段从听到的二重唱中学到的吗？4)个体成年后，二重唱代码是否可以改变？发表后，应要求提供的已发表材料和原始数据清单将发布在首席研究员的实验室网站（http://www.bio.miami.edu/searcylab/karla.html）上。