During singing, individual HVC neurons are active at specific time points in the song without any temporal relation to certain parameters of single song elements, such as syllable onset 21. Nucleus HVC represents a major relay station within this distributed, recurrent network 15, receives auditory information 16, 17, and generates temporally patterned premotor commands for vocal production 18, 19, 20. In birds, the production of song is controlled by an interconnected network of sensory and premotor brain nuclei, the song-control system 14. The temporal dynamics of male and female vocal productions during duetting are, however, unknown.Īnother large gap in knowledge exists regarding the neural mechanisms mediating the precise interindividual coordination of vocalizations during duetting 13. mahali consist of introductory syllables sung by either of the partners and duet syllables emitted by both birds in a rapid but precisely timed fashion 12. All group members defend a year-round territory by producing highly coordinated duet and chorus songs throughout the day 11. This cooperatively breeding species lives in mixed-sex groups consisting of a dominant breeding pair and up to eight subordinates 9, 10. Although the degree of temporal coordination of vocal activity seems to be an important indication of the function of duetting, temporal properties of avian duets have previously rarely been quantified in detail.Ī well-studied duetting songbird species is the white-browed sparrow-weaver, Plocepasser mahali, which is native to eastern and southern Africa. Growing evidence suggests that alternating vocalizations in avian duets are a direct result of the partners’ effort to avoid signal overlap 2, 8. While in some bird species vocalizations from both duet partners temporally overlap to a variable degree 2, 3, 4, other birds produce vocal duets in which the partners’ contributions alternate almost perfectly 5, 6, 7. Avian duets show a high diversity in complexity and in precision of coordination between the partners’ vocal emissions. Duet songs are generally defined as overlapping bouts of sounds produced by both members of a pair 1. We suggest that rhythmic cooperative behavior requires exact interindividual coordination of premotor neural activity, which might be achieved by integration of sensory information originating from the interacting partner.Īvian duetting is a rare phenomenon, which is mainly found among bird species of the southern hemisphere. The resulting interindividually synchronized neural activity pattern elicits vocalizations that perfectly alternate between partners in the ongoing song. We find that in the duet-initiating bird, the onset of the partner’s contribution to the duet triggers a change in rhythm in the periodic neural discharges that are exclusively locked to the initiating bird’s own vocalizations. Here we investigate the neural basis of vocal duetting behavior by using an approach that enables simultaneous recordings of individual vocalizations and multiunit vocal premotor activity in songbird pairs ranging freely in their natural habitat. The neural mechanisms that enable rhythmic interindividual coordination of motor actions are unknown. Many organisms coordinate rhythmic motor actions with those of a partner to generate cooperative social behavior such as duet singing.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |