IBN-9317868 Stewart Hulse Animal communication is an important biological process, playing a role in mate choice, predation and sociality, for example. It also has considerable practical significance. Sound provides an important channel for much animal communication. Dr. Hulse will study how auditory communication takes place. We know a great deal about what animals "say" to one another. However, we know less about how animals make sense out of what they hear. A series of experiments using complex artificial and natural sounds will shed new light on auditory perception. Behavioral tests will be used to analyze the perceptual processes underlying the ability of songbirds to discriminate and classify sounds based on their pitch, spectral structure and temporal structure. These studies of auditory perception and communication are interesting not only in their own right, but also because they may eventually help us to understand communication processes generally -- such as the brain and behavioral processes underlying human language and speech.
