Acoustic and Neural Bases for Innate Recognition of Song

In behavior reminiscent of the responsiveness of human infants to speech, young songbirds innately recognize and prefer to learn the songs of their own species. The acoustic and physiological bases for innate recognition were investigated in fledgling white-crowned sparrows lacking song experience....

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences - PNAS 1997-11, Vol.94 (23), p.12694-12698
Main Authors: Whaling, C. S., Solis, M. M., Doupe, A. J., Soha, J. A., Marler, P.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Animal behavior
Animal communication
Animal vocalization
Animals
Art songs
Behavior, Animal
Behavioral neuroscience
Biological Sciences
Biology
Bird songs
Birds
Corpus Striatum - physiology
Hearing - physiology
Humans
Neostriatum
Neurology
Neurons
Songbirds
Sparrows
Vocalization, Animal - physiology
Whaling
Whistles
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Summary:In behavior reminiscent of the responsiveness of human infants to speech, young songbirds innately recognize and prefer to learn the songs of their own species. The acoustic and physiological bases for innate recognition were investigated in fledgling white-crowned sparrows lacking song experience. A behavioral test revealed that the complete conspecific song was not essential for innate recognition: songs composed of single white-crowned sparrow phrases and songs played in reverse elicited vocal responses as strongly as did normal song. In all cases, these responses surpassed those to other species' songs. Although auditory neurons in the song nucleus HVc and the underlying neostriatum of fledglings did not prefer conspecific song over foreign song, some neurons responded strongly to particular phrase types characteristic of white-crowned sparrows and, thus, could contribute to innate song recognition.
ISSN:0027-8424
1091-6490
DOI:10.1073/pnas.94.23.12694