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CCNY, CSHL biologists find birdsong of isolates reverts to norm over several generations
May 04, 2009In an experiment that points to a role for genetics in the development of culture, biologists at The City College of New York (CCNY) and Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) have discovered that zebra finches raised in isolation will, over several generations, produce a song similar to that sung by the species in the wild.
According to Dr. Olga Fehér, who conducted the experiment for her dissertation at CCNY, first generation male zebra finches raised in isolation produced an unstructured, often abnormal-sounding song that was quite different from the "wild-type" song. These birds were paired in a "tutor-pupil" relationship with a new generation of zebra finches that imitated their tutors' songs, but changed certain characteristics. The alterations accumulated over generations. By the fourth generation the song had evolved toward the "wild-type" song," Dr. Fehér and colleagues report in the May 6 edition of Nature.
"We were surprised the song reverted back to the "wild-type" song so fast," she said.
"Culture appears to be encoded in the birds. It just needed a few generations to emerge," said Dr. Ofer Tchernichovski, CCNY Professor of Biology and Dr. Fehér's thesis adviser. He noted that the same pattern of evolution in the song occurred whether the subsequent generations of male birds were raised among female birds, who do not sing, and siblings in a colony setting or just among isolate males one-on-one.
A similar phenomenon has been observed among deaf children in Nicaragua. There, children developed a rudimentary sign language in the home that spontaneously evolved into a more sophisticated sign language when they were placed in a school with other deaf children.
Dr. Fehér concluded the experiment "identified some encoded traits of culture." This finding could be used to explain why different species develop different song cultures," Professor Tchernichovski added.
Future research could show whether "changes in gene expression, neuronal reorganization or neurogenesis associated with song development show orderly multigenerational progression during the evolution of song culture."
City College of New York
"Culture appears to be encoded in the birds. It just needed a few generations to emerge," said Dr. Ofer Tchernichovski, CCNY Professor of Biology and Dr. Fehér's thesis adviser. He noted that the same pattern of evolution in the song occurred whether the subsequent generations of male birds were raised among female birds, who do not sing, and siblings in a colony setting or just among isolate males one-on-one.
A similar phenomenon has been observed among deaf children in Nicaragua. There, children developed a rudimentary sign language in the home that spontaneously evolved into a more sophisticated sign language when they were placed in a school with other deaf children.
Dr. Fehér concluded the experiment "identified some encoded traits of culture." This finding could be used to explain why different species develop different song cultures," Professor Tchernichovski added.
Future research could show whether "changes in gene expression, neuronal reorganization or neurogenesis associated with song development show orderly multigenerational progression during the evolution of song culture."
City College of New York
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A clever structure in the ear of a tropical butterfly that potentially makes it able to distinguish between high and low pitch sounds has been discovered by scientists from the University of Bristol.
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Birdsongs are used extensively as models for animal signaling and human speech, offering a glimpse of how our own communicating abilities developed.
Birdsong not just for the birds
Computer scientists from the University of Bonn, in conjunction with the birdsong archives of Berlin's Humboldt University, have developed a kind of 'Big Brother' for birds. This has nothing to do with entertainment, but a lot to do with the protection of nature.
The song doesn't remain the same in fragmented bird populations
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Songbirds offer clues to highly practiced motor skills in humans
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Bird Song Study Gives Clues to Human Stuttering
Researchers at the Methodist Neurological Institute (NI) in Houston and Weill Cornell Medical College in New York City used functional MRI to determine that songbirds have a pronounced right-brain response to the sound of songs, establishing a foundational study for future research on songbird models of speech disorders such as stuttering.
International Dawn Chorus Day - Sunday 2nd May 2004
As nature lovers all over the world wake up to enjoy the enthusiastic sounds of birdsongs on International Dawn Chorus Day on 2 May, scientists at British Antarctic Survey's (BAS) Halley Research Station will listen to a very different Dawn Chorus. Each morning, as the Earth and its enveloping atmosphere turn towards the Sun, very low frequency radio waves produced in space, travel down to the ground where they can be "heard" using a simple radio receiver. When converted to audible sound waves, they are remarkably like birdsong and for this reason were named "Dawn Chorus" when they were discovered in the mid 20th century. But there is more to this phenomenon than enchanting sounds. Dr Andy
"We are the champions" - the new birdie song
It's not just football supporters who join together in a rousing chorus to celebrate a victory. Winning a fight also appears to put the tropical boubou, an African bird, in the mood for a song. Research published in BMC Ecology describes a rare example of a context-specific birdsong and identifies the tropical boubou as the first bird species known to sing a 'victory duet'. The birds probably sing to deter other birds from intruding into their territory. According to the authors, "We were able to hear the male note of the victory display across two territories, further than notes of other duets. Also, it was typically sung from higher perches than other duets, making it more conspicuou
More silent spring...?
The evocative sounds of some of the world's most remote places - rare birdsong and human languages - are both under threat. New research from the University of East Anglia compares these threats for the first time.
Tangerine Ruff 'n' Sniff: new clue to bird social behaviour
Scientists believe they have opened the door to an overlooked area of bird behaviour - the use of social scents. The basic assumption is that vision and hearing are the main senses that birds use to signal each other, e.g. the colour of plumage; the sound of birdsong. This is questioned by new experimental evidence observed in the Crested Auklet, an arctic seabird. Research by scientists at Swarthmore College and elsewhere, published in Proceedings B, explored the Crested Auklets' frequent "ruff-sniff" displays during courtship, where individuals place their bills in the nape feathers of a mate, a region that emits a strong tangerine-like scent. The citrusy smell of Crested Auklet f
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