Birdsong: From Behavior to Neuron
Annual Review of NeurosciencePublished 1 March 1985
M Konishi
Citations508
SJR quartileQ1
SJR score7.11
SNIP3.24
Generate an AI Snapshot to get a quick, structured summary of this paper.
Study Snapshot
ObjectiveStudy objective
MethodsResearch methodology
PopulationPopulation studied
Sample sizeSample sizes
OutcomesStudy outcomes here
ResultsStudy results comes here
LimitationsResearch study limitations comes here
A concise AI-generated summary of the paper will appear here once you click Generate AI Snapshot.
TL;DR
This review shall examine critically the major current issues and ideas in this field, placing special emphasis on the topics related to the development, learning, and neural control of song.
Abstract
The study of birdsong has made significant contributions to the development of modern ethology. Concepts such as species-specificity in animal signals, innate predisposition in learning, and sensory templates for motor development were put forth first in birdsong research (Marler 1957, 1 964, Konishi 1965b, Hinde 1982). Also, it was the study of song development that elevated the much debated issue of instinct versus learning from the realm of semantic discourse and confusion to an experimentally tractable subject (Marler 1983). The recent discovery of neural substrates for song has introduced a new dimension to the study of birdsong, making integration of behavioral and neurobiological studies feasible (Nottebohm et aI1976). Neurobiological concepts and methods are now directly applicable to this field. This integrated approach can address not only some of the outstanding issues that arose in behavioral studies and that are refractory to further behavioral analysis, but it also makes birdsong an attractive subject for the study of such basic issues as \nneural coding, learning, memory, developmental plasticity, and sensorimotor coordination. In this review I shall examine critically the major current issues and ideas in this field, placing special emphasis on the topics related to the development, learning, and neural control of song. Because extensive listings and reviews of recent literature on birdsongs are available (Kroodsma & Miller 1982a,b), the references cited are limited to those essential for the discussion of facts and theories on selected topics.
Keywords
PsychologyAgricultural and Biological SciencesBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
EndocrinologyORGANIZING ACTION OF PRENATALLY ADMINISTERED TESTOSTERONE PROPIONATE ON THE TISSUES MEDIATING MATING BEHAVIOR IN THE FEMALE GUINEA PIG<sup>1</sup>
1,933 Citations1959Charles H. Phoenix, Robert W. Goy +2 more
The sexual behavior of male and female guinea pigs from mothers receiving testosterone propionate during most of pregnancy was studied after the attainment of adulthood and the capacity to display lordosis following administration of estrogen and progesterone was greatly reduced.
Annual Review of NeuroscienceGonadal Steroid Induction of Structural Sex Differences in the Central Nervous System
1,188 Citations1984Arthur P. Arnold, Roger A. Gorski
It is recognized that gonadal steroids can exert profound effects on the morphogenesis and survival of specific neurons resulting in marked sex differences in eNS structure.
ScienceSexual Dimorphism in Vocal Control Areas of the Songbird Brain
1,122 Citations1976Fernando Nottebohm, Arthur P. Arnold
In canaries and zebra finches, three vocal control areas in the brain are strikingly larger in males than in females, believed to be the first report of such gross sexual dimorphism in a vertebrate brain.
ScienceA Brain for All Seasons: Cyclical Anatomical Changes in Song Control Nuclei of the Canary Brain
756 Citations1981Fernando Nottebohm
Male canaries that have reached sexual maturity can, in subsequent years, learn new song repertoires and two telencephalic song control nuclei are hypothesized to reflect an increase and then reduction in numbers of synapses and are related to the yearly ability to acquire new motor coordinations.
Ornithological ApplicationsSong "Dialects" in Three Populations of White-Crowned Sparrows
554 Citations1962Peter Marler, M. Tamura
This paper seeks to provide some of the necessary information about song variation in the individual and in a population, both at one time and from year to year, and also by comparing songs in three populations, two adjacent and one distant.
The Journal of Comparative NeurologyConnections of vocal control nuclei in the canary telencephalon
534 Citations1982Fernando Nottebohm, John A. Paton +1 more
Connections of two telencephalic vocal control nuclei, the hyperstriatum ventrale, pars caudale (HVc), and robust nucleus of the archistriatum (RA), were investigated in adult canaries, suggesting that HVc is composed of rostrocaudally organized clusters of cells, with little lateral communication between them.
Journal of NeuroscienceAcoustic parameters underlying the responses of song-specific neurons in the white-crowned sparrow
509 Citations1983Daniel Margoliash
The auditory response properties of units in one of the telencephalic nuclei controlling song have recently been shown to respond to acoustic stimuli are investigated using a technique that permitted great flexibility in manipulating complex stimuli such as song.
ScienceSelective Vocal Learning in a Sparrow
387 Citations1977Peter Marler, Susan Peters
Male swamp sparrows learn their songs; they fail to learn songs of the sympatric song sparrow, and selection was retained by birds reared in total isolation from adult conspecific sounds.
NatureSong repertoires and territory defence in the great tit
380 Citations1978John R. Krebs, Ruth E. Ashcroft +1 more
It is shown that great tit song plays a part in territory maintenance by experiments in which ‘occupied’ territories with loudspeakers after removing resident pairs, and the possibility that repertoires enhance the effectiveness of song as a territorial display was tested.
The Journal of Comparative NeurologyHormone concentrating cells in vocal control and other areas of the brain of the zebra finch (<i>Poephila guttata</i>)
379 Citations1976Arthur P. Arnold, Fernando Nottebohm +1 more
Using the autoradiographic method in the zebra finch, areas of the brain were identified which contain cells which accumulate testosterone or its metabolites after intramuscular injection of tritiated testosterone.
Brain ResearchTestosterone triggers growth of brain vocal control nuclei in adult female canaries
377 Citations1980Fernando Nottebohm
Two vocal control nuclei of the canary telencephalon, hyperstriatum ventrale, pars caudale (HVc) and nucleus robustus archistriatalis (RA), are larger in males, that learn complex songs, than in females, that normally do not sing.
Journal of NeuroscienceHormonal control of cell form and number in the zebra finch song system
366 Citations1981ME Gurney
Administration of testosterone (T), 17 beta-estradiol (E2), or 5 alpha- dihydrotestosterone (DHT) to female zebra finch chicks (Poephila guttata) at hatching exerts effects on brain sexual differentiation.
BehaviourSpecific Distinctiveness in the Communication Signals of Birds
355 Citations1957Peter Marler
Releasers selected for moderate specific distinctiveness, with both intra- and inter-specific functions, diverge at a relatively slow rate, are of little use in specific diagnosis, but are valuable for classifying genera and families.
BehaviourAn Experimental Analysis of the Parameters of Bird Song Eliciting Species Recognition
309 Citations1972Stephen T. Emlen
During the summers of I967 I968 and I969, I studied the acoustical communication system of the Indigo Bunting by means of playback experiments, deciphering those properties of territorial song used in species identification.
ScienceA Test for Responsiveness to Song Structure and Programming in Female Sparrows
288 Citations1981William A. Searcy, Peter Marler
Female song sparrows, primed with implants of estradiol, gave the solicitation display for copulation in response to acoustic stimulation with song, demonstrating a substantial correspondence between the structure and programming of the singing behavior of male birds and female responsiveness to song.
Developmental PsychobiologyDevelopmental overproduction and selective attrition: New processes in the epigenesis of birdsong
274 Citations1982Peter Marler, Susan Peters
All phases of song development from infancy to adulthood were studied intensively in a group of laboratory-reared birds, indicating that the attrition process is selective, and tendencies to retain imitated rather than nonimitated elements, and the rejection of heterospecific elements.
Journal of Theoretical BiologyThe logical analysis of animal communication
272 Citations1961Peter Marler
Using the methods developed by C. W. Morris 1946 for the logical analysis of human language, identiflors, designators, appraisors and prescriptors can be distinguished.
The Journal of Comparative NeurologyProjections of a telencephalic auditory nucleus– field L–in the canary
267 Citations1979Darcy B. Kelley, Fernando Nottebohm
Anterograde projections of a telencephalic auditory area – field L of the neostriatum – were traced in canaries, Serinus canarius, and argyrophilic degeneration was traced to medial PA and to a shelf of nestriatum underlying HVc.
Annals of the Entomological Society of AmericaSpecificity in the Response of Female Tree Crickets (Orthoptera, Gryllidae, Oecanthinae) to Calling Songs of the Males1
258 Citations1957Thomas J. Walker
On late summer evenings in many habitats in the eastern United States, there are twenty or more species stridulating at the same time, and the resulting din is astonishing to those unaccustomed to it.
Annual Review of NeuroscienceSynaptic Plasticity in the Mammalian Central Nervous System
258 Citations1981N. Tsukahara
This paper reviews this recent literature on plasticity, focusing on four areas that have increased greatly in understanding of the nature of these plastic changes in the central nervous system.
Brain ResearchBrain space for a learned task
252 Citations1981Fernando Nottebohm, Susan Kasparian +1 more
There was a positive and significant correlation between testis weight at the end of the breeding season and the volume of RA at that time, suggesting a hormone-mediated seasonal modulation of part of the brain space occupied by song control pathways.
The AukSongs of the Alder Flycatcher (Empidonax alnorum) and Willow Flycatcher (Empidonax traillii) are Innate
246 Citations1984Donald E. Kroodsma
No microgeographic variation of wild songs, no evidence of learning from a tutor tape, nor any similarity of song characters among kin are found, and the vocal development of these suboscine flycatchers is strikingly different from that of typical oscines, where vocal learning is the rule.
Zeitschrift für TierpsychologieRelationship between Song Repertoire and Age in the Canary, <i>Serinus canarius</i>
237 Citations1978Fernando Nottebohm, Marta E. Nottebohm
The results indicate that neural pathways responsible for song learning in canaries remain plastic in adulthood, and suggest that the larger song repertoires of older ♂♂ confer a reproductive advantage by acting as a more potent stimulus on ♀♀.
Animal BehaviourThe significance of song repertoires: The Beau Geste hypothesis
234 Citations1977John R. Krebs
In the great tit, non-territorial birds use the song of residents as a cue in assessing density, and it is suggested that repertoires are used by resident birds to increase the apparent density of singing residents, and hence decrease the apparent suitability of the area to new birds.
Animal BehaviourSong learning and social interaction in indigo buntings
226 Citations1981Robert B. Payne
The importance of social factors in song development of yearling buntings explains the development of local groups of males that share songs or dialects with each other in the field.
Brain ResearchAndrogen affects cholinergic enzymes in syringeal motor neurons and muscle
208 Citations1980Victoria N. Luine, Fernando Nottebohm +2 more
One mechanism for T regulation of singing in passerine birds is through induction of specific enzymatic proteins in androgen target neurons and muscles, and an androgenic effect also operates in addition.
The American NaturalistSong Repertoires and Lifetime Reproductive Success in the Great Tit (Parus major)
202 Citations1981Peter K. McGregor, John R. Krebs +1 more
Song repertoires of breeding male great tits are recorded during six successive seasons and correlations between repertoire size and reproductive success are tested, suggesting lifetime reproductive success appears to be highest for males with intermediate-sized repertoires.
ScienceSparrows Learn Adult Song and More from Memory
195 Citations1981Peter Marler, Susan Peters
Male swamp sparrows reared in the laboratory and exposed to taped songs during infancy produce accurate imitations of the material following an 8-month interval with no rehearsal, indicating that these songbirds learn more than they manifest in full adult song.
Brain ResearchBehavioral correlates of sexual differentiation in the zebra finch song system
183 Citations1982Mark E. Gurney
The capacity for song is masculinized in female zebra finches by exposure to 17 beta-estradiol at hatching, and requires continual exposure to androgen for its behavioral expression in the adult.
The American NaturalistCorrelates of Song Organization Among North American Wrens
173 Citations1977Donald E. Kroodsma
ScienceSexual Difference in Pattern of Hormone Accumulation in the Brain of a Songbird
163 Citations1979Arthur P. Arnold, Albert Saltiel
After adult zebra finches (Poephila guttata) received injections of tritiated testosterone, fewer hormone-concentrating cells were found in females than in males in two brain regions involved in song: hyperstriatum ventrale pars caudale and magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum.
Journal of Comparative and Physiological PsychologyRole of auditory feedback in canary song development.
159 Citations1977Peter Marler, Mary Sue Waser
The song of deaf canaries retained more species-specific features than did the song of emberizine sparrows when the songs developed without auditory feedback, showing that canary song is not fully innate, as had been thought.
Animal BehaviourVariation in the song of the great reed warbler Acrocephalus arundinaceus in relation to mate attraction and territorial defence
156 Citations1983Clive K. Catchpole
The great reed warbler is a partial polygynist, and through evolutionary compromise has evolved a variable song structure which can be shortened for territorial defence, and lengthened for mate attraction.
Ornithological ApplicationsEffects of Deafening on Song Development in Two Species of Juncos
155 Citations1964Masakazu Konishi
The purpose of the present work is to investigate the role of audition in the development of song, using audiospectrographic analyses of the sound to find an internal and inherited source of reference for normal vocalization.
BehaviourThe Process of Species-Specific Song Recognition By the Indigo Bunting, Passerina Cyanea, and Its Relationship To the Organization of Avian Acoustical Behavior
155 Citations1975Kenneth A. Shiovitz
Songs of the Indigo Bunting, Passerina cyanea, mostly from Kentucky and Michigan, were analyzed for species-consistent characteristics and compared to sampled Lazuli and Painted Bunting songs to identify genus-cons consistent characteristics and possible directions of behavioral evolution.
Journal of NeuroscienceBilateral organization of the vocal control pathway in the budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus
145 Citations1981J. A. Paton, K Manogue +1 more
Anatomical and electrophysiological methods were used to map the vocal control nuclei of the budgerigar, Melopsittacus undulatus and found that the primary vocal control pathway consisted of the motor nucleus innervating the trachea and syrinx, nXIIts; an archistriatal nucleus, RA; and a neostriatal nuclei, “HVc.”
Animal BehaviourSong repertoires in the red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus): A test of the Beau Geste hypothesis
139 Citations1981Ken Yasukawa
The Beau Geste hypothesis was pro- posed to provide a functional explanation for listener habituation and suggests that non- territorial males settle in low-density areas be- cause they habituate rapidly in response to small numbers of song types.
ScienceDevelopment of Grooming in Mice with Amputated Forelimbs
137 Citations1973John C. Fentress
Face grooming sequences that involve coordination of the shoulders, tongue, and eyes develop remarkably normally in inbred mice with one or both forelimbs amputated from birth indicates endogenous control with a strong genetic component.
Animal BehaviourEffects of acoustical stimulation and deprivation on song development in red-winged blackbirds (Agelaius phoeniceus)
111 Citations1972Peter Marler, Paul C. Mundinger +2 more
In masking noise from 8 to 330 days, one individual sings like a deaf bird, and with reduced periods of masking singing is more like that of intact birds.
The AukModulation in Bird Sounds
109 Citations1968Robert Carrington Stein
This paper analyzes several bird vocalizations and interprets their patterns as the product of individual and interacting oscillators and sound modifying structures; it also suggests a model for the operation of the syrinx during sound production.
Animal BehaviourA re-evaluation of song development in the song sparrow
90 Citations1977Donald E. Kroodsma
Song sparrows were hand-reared from the egg in auditory isolation from adult conspecifics and maintained either together with other species or individually in sound chambers, where songs developed by the males differed both qualitatively and quantitatively and were therefore readily distinguished from wild-type songs.
The AukAn Hypothesis concerning the Relationship of Syringeal Structure to Vocal Abilities
84 Citations1983Abbot S. Gaunt
Syringeal complexity may not be an adaptation for plastic vocal behavior, but it is permissive of and probably prerequisite for such behavior.
The Journal of the Acoustical Society of AmericaVocal Response of the Bullfrog to Natural and Synthetic Mating Calls
80 Citations1966Robert R. Capranica
The model has satisfactorily accounted for the selective responses to some natural bullfrog mating calls and the absence of responses to others, and the close relationship of the model to recent electrophysiological findings in the peripheral auditory system of the bullfrog is discussed.
Trends in NeurosciencesBirdsong: The acquisition of a learned motor skill
72 Citations1981Peter Marler
Birdsongs are probably the most complex patterns of motor activity known from the natural behavior of animals, and song dialects are transmitted as learned traditions, providing an illustration of the intricate interplay of nature and nurture that must underlie all adaptive learning.
Animal BehaviourSong development in the indigo bunting
71 Citations1968John O'Hara Rice, William L. Thompson
The detailed characteristics of the wild indigo bunting song seem to be learned, but this learning seems to involve primarily a refinement of a basic pattern which the bird is able to produce without ever having heard an indigo Bunting song.
The AukSong Development in Hand-Raised Oregon Juncos
71 Citations1962Peter Marler, Miwako Tamura
This paper takes young birds from the nest before they fledged and raised them in varying degrees of isolation to describe the development of song under these conditions and compares the final results with the songs of wild Oregon Juncos.
Ornithological ApplicationsSong Groups in a Singing Assembly of Little Hermits
62 Citations1971R. Haven Wiley
The songs at most of the singing perches in one assembly of Little Hermits appeared to remain constant in the course of three years, suggesting either that individual males retain the same perches from year to year and enjoy relatively high survival rates, or that the males succeeding each other at one singing perch tend to have similar songs.
Ornithological ApplicationsWinter Wren Singing Behavior: A Pinnacle of Song Complexity
58 Citations1980Donald E. Kroodsma
Songs of neighboring male Winter Wrens in Maine, New York, and Oregon are examined to document exactly how long, complex, and repeatable are the songs of a male from one day to the next, determine the extent to which neighboring males share the same song types, and discuss a striking geographical variability in song complexity.
Journal of Comparative Physiology AReversal of hypoglossal dominance in canaries following unilateral syringeal denervation
57 Citations1979Fernando Nottebohm, Elizabeth Manning +1 more
It is suggested that hypoglossal dominance and dominance reversal may provide convenient material to study neuronal changes related to the learning of new motor tasks.
The Journal of Comparative NeurologyAfferent neurons in the hypoglossal nerve of the zebra finch <i>(Poephila guttata)</i>: Localization with horseradish peroxidase
57 Citations1982Sarah W. Bottjer, Arthur P. Arnold
Results indicate that hypoglossal afferents have cell bodies in the vagal ganglion, enter the medulla dorsally with vagal fibers, and terminate in the trigeminal complex.
ScienceDiscrimination of Intermediate Sounds in a Synthetic Call Continuum by Female Green Tree Frogs
56 Citations1978H. Carl Gerhardt
The tree frog's auditory system provides a wide margin for the discrimination of its two principal signals, and processing appears to be continuous.
Auditory Environment and Vocal Development in Birds
46 Citations1978Masakazu Konishi
This chapter discusses the ontogeny of bird voice as it relates to these principles rather than to present a descriptive review of the field, which is already available.
Annual Review of NeuroscienceNeural Control of Behavior
41 Citations1978David Bentley, Masakazu Konishi
Rather than review any single research area in detail, this work hopes to focus on the nature of behavior as seen from a cellular level, and to identify emerging principles and problems provided by this approach.
Brain ResearchAndrogen increases protein synthesis within the avian brain vocal control system
40 Citations1981M. Konishi, Eugene Akutagawa
Amino acid autoradiography combined with hormonal manipulation shows that increased rates of protein synthesis in the brain vocal control areas precede the induction of song by androgen in female song birds.
Brain ResearchRespiratory gating of activity in the avian vocal control system
38 Citations1982Kirk R. Manogue, John A. Paton
Electrical stimulation of brain nuclei within the vocal control pathway of budgerigals or zebra finches evoked neural activity in the hypoglossal nerves innervating the vocal organ, the syrinx such that stimulation recruited more hypog lossal motor neurons to fire during expiration than during inspiration.
Animal BehaviourThe contribution of temporal song cues to species recognition in the red-winged blackbird
30 Citations1983Eliot A. Brenowitz
It is demonstrated that trills of red-winged blackbird songs near Ithaca, New York contain 40–107 pulses/s, which suggests that pulse repetition rate and frequency composition are important in species recognition.