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发声交流。例如，在人类对话中，每个人都会避免彼此重叠，这一规则被称为“话轮转换”。人类交谈中的另一条规则--“配对相邻”--规定特定的回答应该紧跟在特定的话语之后：例如，一个问候语应该由另一个问候语来回答，而一个问题之后应该有一个答案。由于人类对话的复杂性，人类对话很难研究，因此人们认识到有必要进行跨学科研究，研究简单动物模型中的相互作用规则。这项研究将讨论一种二重唱的新热带鸟类：平原乌鸦的转弯和配对相邻的潜在生物学例子。这项研究将是第一个实验研究二重唱物种中歌曲发展的研究之一，也是第一个实验研究管理二重唱的相互作用规则的发展。此外，这项研究将通过招募当地的野外导游以及拉丁美洲和美国的本科生从事实验室和野外工作来支持他们的教育。不同鸣禽的配对一起唱二重唱。在一些物种中，包括普通的乌鸦，一对雄性和雌性如此迅速和准确地交替歌唱，以至于听起来就像是一个单独的个体在唱歌。在许多二重唱物种中，同样包括普通乌鸦，雄性和雌性都有性别特有的歌曲元素，并遵循指定使用一个性别的哪个音节来回答另一个性别的特定音节的“二重唱代码”。这项研究将首次深入研究二重唱的各个方面是如何发展的，如精确的时间协调、特定性别的元素和二重唱代码。普通乌鸦将在圈养中人工饲养，并通过二重唱和独唱或仅用独唱进行指导。这项实验将回答四个主要问题：1)普通乌鸦在早期发育过程中是否需要二重唱的经验才能准确地进行二重唱？2)普通乌鸦是否天生就有学习自己性别特有的歌曲的天赋？3)二重唱代码是从生命早期听到的二重唱中学习的吗？4)当个体成年后，二重唱代码是否可以改变？出版后，将在首席调查员的实验室网站(http://www.bio.miami.edu/searcylab/karla.html)上公布已出版材料和可供索取的主要数据的清单。