Culture consists of traits transmitted through social learning. One example for social learning is the acquisition of song by songbirds: During a sensitive period early in life, young males learn to imitate their father's song. Songbirds provide tractable models of culture: Members of a species show individual variation in song, and geographically separated groups have local song dialects, i.e., a local song culture. How does song culture develop over multiple generations? In zebra finches, birds kept isolated during the sensitive period develop an abnormal (isolate) song. Interestingly, in an isolated colony founded by an isolate, "normal" songs with species-typical features emerge within 3-4 generations, due to biased imitation that gradually transforms the isolate song into the species-typical song. Understanding how song develops in individual birds and how song culture develops in a community might require knowledge not only about the vocal, but also about the sensory-perceptual development across generations, as well as the social interactions which accompany it. This project is a combined study of social, vocal, and sensory aspects of song development. The investigators will design controlled social environments to examine dynamically how song is acquired and how song culture emerges. They will combine the continuous analysis of vocal changes and social interactions with non-invasive functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) of the brain to investigate how auditory brain responses to songs develop, and how they drive cultural changes. Moreover, these researchers will test if developmental changes in brain architecture correlate with observed vocal and/or sensory changes using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
This research will provide a bridge between studies of vocal and sensory changes and ethology studies of cultural changes in vocal communication. This project will contribute to the training of three graduate students, and provide scientific education and research training to undergraduate students as well as middle and high school students in the community.
