The focus of this proposed research is developmental vocal learning, using the songbird as a model. Both humans and zebra finches acquire their vocal repertoire during early life by imitating adult conspecifics. This process has three prominent similarities in the two species: Vocal learning occurs during a sensitive period of development, during this period it relies on auditory feedback, and the vocal learning is facilitated by the presence of a mode of highly variable vocalizations, called babbling. In juvenile songbirds, distinct brain areas are dedicated to babbling, and these areas drive vocal exploration. In this application we propose to examine how vocal exploration guides changes in the songs produced, and how auditory feedback can be used to allow """"""""self-improvement"""""""" of vocal patterns. Furthermore, we anticipate that understanding how the different layers of song structure develop might allow us to teach adult birds new songs, thereby overcoming the age constraints that normally prevent vocal learning in adult birds. To this end, we have designed new imitation tasks in which we guide the bird's imitation from one model song to another and determine the parameters of particular trajectories of imitation, recording and analyzing every vocalization the bird makes over the period of learning.
The proposed research will examine the role of babbling in developmental vocal learning using songbirds as a model of early speech development. We will try to achieve vocal learning in the zebra finch after the sensitive period for vocal learning is over. Our findings might lead to improved treatment of speech disorders induced by stroke, or as seen in developmental apraxia.
| Tchernichovski, Ofer; Feher, Olga; Fimiarz, Daniel et al. (2017) How social learning adds up to a culture: from birdsong to human public opinion. J Exp Biol 220:124-132 |
| Hyland Bruno, Julia; Tchernichovski, Ofer (2017) Regularities in zebra finch song beyond the repeated motif. Behav Processes : |
| Lipkind, Dina; Zai, Anja T; Hanuschkin, Alexander et al. (2017) Songbirds work around computational complexity by learning song vocabulary independently of sequence. Nat Commun 8:1247 |
| Tokarev, Kirill; Hyland Bruno, Julia; Ljubi?i?, Iva et al. (2017) Sexual dimorphism in striatal dopaminergic responses promotes monogamy in social songbirds. Elife 6: |
| Fehér, Olga; Ljubi?i?, Iva; Suzuki, Kenta et al. (2017) Statistical learning in songbirds: from self-tutoring to song culture. Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 372: |
| Janney, Eathan; Taylor, Hollis; Scharff, Constance et al. (2016) Temporal regularity increases with repertoire complexity in the Australian pied butcherbird's song. R Soc Open Sci 3:160357 |
| Tchernichovski, Ofer; Lipkind, Dina (2016) Encoding vocal culture. Science 354:1234-1235 |
| Tchernichovski, Ofer; Oller, D Kimbrough (2016) Vocal Development: How Marmoset Infants Express Their Feelings. Curr Biol 26:R422-4 |
| Benichov, Jonathan I; Benezra, Sam E; Vallentin, Daniela et al. (2016) The Forebrain Song System Mediates Predictive Call Timing in Female and Male Zebra Finches. Curr Biol 26:309-18 |
| Benichov, Jonathan I; Globerson, Eitan; Tchernichovski, Ofer (2016) Finding the Beat: From Socially Coordinated Vocalizations in Songbirds to Rhythmic Entrainment in Humans. Front Hum Neurosci 10:255 |
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