Journal ArticleDOI
Frequency Modulation During Song in a Suboscine Does Not Require Vocal Muscles
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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Book
The Speech Sciences
TL;DR: In this paper, an overview of Anatomy, The Speech System, and Speech Sounds is presented, with a focus on the upper airway of speech production and its role in speech communication.
Journal ArticleDOI
Producing Song: The Vocal Apparatus
TL;DR: Comparative studies indicate songbirds have evolved species‐specific motor patterns that utilize the two sides of the syrinx in specific ways and enhance the particular acoustic effects characterizing the species song.
Journal ArticleDOI
Simple Motor Gestures for Birdsongs
TL;DR: A model of sound production in a songbird's vocal organ is presented and it is found that much of the complexity of the song of the canary (Serinus canaria) can be produced from simple time variations in forcing functions.
Book ChapterDOI
Chapter 4 – The diversity and plasticity of birdsong
TL;DR: In this article, a small portion of the singing behaviors among the roughly 10,000 extant birds is sampled, and the distribution of song characteristics in these dialects or the lack of dialects, informs us, in part, about the memberships of groups and about which birds a male can best influence with his songs.
Book ChapterDOI
Motor Correlates of Vocal Diversity in Songbirds
Roderick A. Suthers,Franz Goller +1 more
TL;DR: Oscine songbirds invest a substantial amount of time producing song, which has important roles in male-male competition and in attracting and stimulating a mate, as well as in species and individual recognition.
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