Equipment for birdsong collection, playback and analysis

该提案要求为正在进行的声学感知研究项目提供录音、播放和分析鸣禽发声所需的音响设备。以前对鸣声的研究主要集中在雄性鸣声的产生上，以及成年鸣声的经验对年轻雄性鸟类学习产生适合物种的鸣声（尤其是鸣声）是多么必要。对歌曲和其他发声的感知，以及早期经验对感知的影响，特别是对女性的影响，研究得很少。我使用行为学和神经学两种方法来研究黑冠山雀和其他物种对鸣叫的反应，以研究鸟类如何处理声音信号中的信息，雄性和雌性、幼鸟和成年鸟、正常饲养和隔离饲养的鸟类对鸣叫的处理方式是否存在差异。我还研究了季节性对感知的影响，例如，适合这个季节的发声（即春天的歌声）是否与不适合这个季节的发声（即秋天的歌声）的处理方式不同。这个设备将允许我在野外和实验室里对鸟类播放声音，以研究它们的行为（如发声）和神经（如即时早期基因活动）对歌曲的反应，并记录这些反应以供分析和用作未来实验的刺激。它将是本实验室研究的一套关键和不可或缺的设备，并将为完成研究生和本科学位的学生全年使用。

This proposal requests sound equipment necessary for recording, playing, and analysing vocalizations of songbirds for an ongoing research program on acoustic perception. Previous research on song has primarily focused on song production in males and how experience with adult vocalizations is necessary for young male birds to learn to produce species-appropriate vocalizations, especially song. Perception of song and other vocalizations, and the effects of early experience on perception, especially in females has been studied far less. I use both behavioural and neural measures to examine response to vocalizations in black-capped chickadees and other species to study how the bird processes information in acoustic signals, whether there are differences in how vocalizations are processed by males and females, by young and adult birds, and by normally and isolate-reared birds. I also examine the effects of seasonality on perception, for example, whether vocalizations appropriate to the season (i.e. song in spring) are processed differently than vocalizations inappropriate to the season (i.e. song in fall). This equipment will allow me to play sounds to birds in both the field and the lab in order to study their behavioural (e.g. vocalizations) and neural (e.g. immediate-early gene activity) responses to song, and to record these responses for analyses and use as stimuli in future experiments. It will be a critical and integral set of equipment for research in this laboratory and will gain year-round use by students completing both graduate and undergraduate degrees.