Neuroethology of songbird acoustic communication

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My research program is aimed at understanding the cognitive, perceptual, evolutionary, developmental, and neural bases underlying vocal communication in songbirds. Specifically, my current aim is to determine the proximate mechanisms controlling songbirds' perception of the natural vocal categories (i.e., note-types, call types) contained in their calls and songs, as a first step towards this ultimate goal of developing comprehensive understanding songbird acoustic communication. The perception of categories is a powerful phenomenon that has been demonstrated in many animal species, including humans and songbirds. By sorting large numbers of environmental stimuli, such as songbird vocalizations, into perceptual categories rather than memorizing each new instance, animals can quickly adapt to novel environmental stimuli. For example, chickadee flocks rapidly increase their calling and decrease their foraging activities after hearing another flock's 'chick-a-dee' call. Importantly, they do so without having to learn about the particular call or the flock emitting the call. Rather, chickadees quickly sort the call into a "foreign flock" category and respond appropriately to the perceived threat. Not only do songbirds produce and perceive these natural categories, but songbirds also represent an excellent model system for studying category perception; the brain areas and circuits controlling vocal production and perception are well known as are songbirds' perceptual abilities and behaviour in the wild. In order to begin to understand vocal category perception in songbirds specifically, and in so doing of songbird vocal communication more generally, I take an integrative approach and combine bioacoustic analyses, field playback experiments, and operant conditioning experiments, along with developmental, neurophysiological and neuroanatomical approaches to determine how several species songbirds perceive their vocalizations. Taken together, this research program will increase our understanding not only of songbird communication, perception and cognition but will provide general insights into how animals in general use acoustic communication.