Journal ArticleDOI
Frequency Modulation During Song in a Suboscine Does Not Require Vocal Muscles
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TLDR
This work investigates sound production and control of sound frequency in the Great Kiskadee by recording air sac pressure and vocalizations during spontaneously generated song and assumes a nonlinear restitution force for the oscillating membrane folds in a two mass model of sound production to reproduce the frequency modulations of the observed vocalizations.Abstract:
The physiology of sound production in suboscines is poorly investigated. Suboscines are thought to develop song innately unlike the closely related oscines. Comparing phonatory mechanisms might therefore provide interesting insight into the evolution of vocal learning. Here we investigate sound production and control of sound frequency in the Great Kiskadee (Pitangus sulfuratus) by recording air sac pressure and vocalizations during spontaneously generated song. In all the songs and calls recorded, the modulations of the fundamental frequency are highly correlated to air sac pressure. To test whether this relationship reflects frequency control by changing respiratory activity or indicates synchronized vocal control, we denervated the syringeal muscles by bilateral resection of the tracheosyringeal nerve. After denervation, the strong correlation between fundamental frequency and air sac pressure patterns remained unchanged. A single linear regression relates sound frequency to air sac pressure in the intact and denervated birds. This surprising lack of control by syringeal muscles of frequency in Kiskadees, in strong contrast to songbirds, poses the question of how air sac pressure regulates sound frequency. To explore this question theoretically, we assume a nonlinear restitution force for the oscillating membrane folds in a two mass model of sound production. This nonlinear restitution force is essential to reproduce the frequency modulations of the observed vocalizations.read more
Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI
On the relationship between, and measurement of, amplitude and frequency in birdsong
TL;DR: A growing number of studies ask whether and how bird songs vary between areas with low versus high levels of anthropogenic noise as discussed by the authors and find that birds are seen to sing at higher frequencies in urban versus rural populations, presumably because of selection for higher-pitched songs in the face of low-frequency urban noise.
Journal ArticleDOI
The songbird syrinx morphome: a three-dimensional, high-resolution, interactive morphological map of the zebra finch vocal organ
Daniel Normen Düring,Alexander Ziegler,Christopher K. Thompson,Christopher K. Thompson,Andreas Ziegler,Cornelius Faber,Johannes Müller,Constance Scharff,Coen P. H. Elemans +8 more
TL;DR: The results show that the syringeal skeleton is optimized for low weight driven by physiological constraints on song production, and a cartilaginous structure suited to play a crucial role in the uncoupling of sound frequency and amplitude control, which permits a novel explanation of the evolutionary success of songbirds.
Journal ArticleDOI
Elemental gesture dynamics are encoded by song premotor cortical neurons
TL;DR: The HVC precisely encodes vocal motor output through activity at the times of extreme points of movement trajectories, and it is proposed that the sequential activity of HVC neurons is used as a 'forward' model, representing the sequence of gestures in song to make predictions on expected behaviour and evaluate feedback.
Journal ArticleDOI
The learning advantage: bird species that learn their song show a tighter adjustment of song to noisy environments than those that do not learn
TL;DR: Comparison of patterns of song adjustment to noise in oscines and suboscines in Brazil and Mexico City suggests that song learning and/or song plasticity allows adaptation to new habitats and that this selective advantage may be linked to the evolution ofsong learning and plasticity.
Journal ArticleDOI
On the relation between loudness and the increased song frequency of urban birds.
TL;DR: It is suggested that adjustments in song frequency and amplitude are largely independent and, thus, can be complementary rather than alternative vocal adjustments to noise.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI
The brain has a body: adaptive behavior emerges from interactions of nervous system, body and environment.
Hillel J. Chiel,Randall D. Beer +1 more
TL;DR: Computational neuroethology, which jointly models neural control and periphery of animals, is a promising methodology for understanding adaptive behavior.
Journal ArticleDOI
Brain pathways for learned and unlearned vocalizations differ in zebra finches
HB Simpson,DS Vicario +1 more
TL;DR: It is suggested that the learned features of oscine songbird vocalizations are controlled by a telencephalic pathway that acts in concert with other pathways responsible for simpler, unlearned vocalizations.
Journal ArticleDOI
Bifurcations in an asymmetric vocal‐fold model
Ina Steinecke,Hanspeter Herzel +1 more
TL;DR: A two-mass model of vocal-fold vibrations is analyzed with methods from nonlinear dynamics and it is shown that a sufficiently large tension imbalance of the left and right vocal fold induces bifurcations to subharmonic regimes, toroidal oscillations, and chaos.
Journal ArticleDOI
Neural lateralization of vocal control in a passerine bird. I. Song
TL;DR: The mechanism of song production in the chaffinch, Fringilla coelebs, is inferred from losses of song components following unilateral denervation of the syrinx, and Greenwalt and Stein's “two-voice” theory ofsong production is supported.
Journal ArticleDOI
Stimulus Filtering and Electroreception: Tuberous Electroreceptors in Three Species of Gymnotoid Fish
Carl Hopkins,Carl Hopkins +1 more
TL;DR: Electroreceptive neurons in the posterior branch of the anterior lateral line nerve of three species of electric fish (Gymnotoidei), Sternopygus macrums, Eigenmannia virescens, andApteronotus albifrons, show speciesspecific differences in the filtering of electrical stimuli.
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