ArticleThe Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience2010
Smooth operator: avoidance of subharmonic bifurcations through mechanical mechanisms simplifies song motor control in adult zebra finches.
Article in The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 19 papers.
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Who cites it
19 citing papers in PubMed, 29 citations in OpenAlex.
- How to analyse and manipulate nonlinear phenomena in voice recordings.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Transitions and tricks: nonlinear phenomena in the avian voice.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Nonlinear vocal phenomena in African penguin begging calls: occurrence, significance and potential applications.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Exploring nonlinear phenomena in animal vocalizations through oscillator theory.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- 'Monkey yodels'-frequency jumps in New World monkey vocalizations greatly surpass human vocal register transitions.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Vocal registers expand signal diversity in vertebrate vocal communication.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Realistic three-dimensional avian vocal tract model demonstrates how shape affects sound filtering (Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2023Article
- A mechanism for punctuating equilibria during mammalian vocal development.PLoS computational biology · 2022Article
- Syringeal vocal folds do not have a voice in zebra finch vocal development.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- The evolution of the syrinx: An acoustic theory.PLoS biology · 2019Article
- Vocal development through morphological computation.PLoS biology · 2018Article
- Controllable biomimetic birdsong.Journal of the Royal Society, Interface · 2017Article
- Contributions of rapid neuromuscular transmission to the fine control of acoustic parameters of birdsong.Journal of neurophysiology · 2017Article
- Universal mechanisms of sound production and control in birds and mammals.Nature communications · 2015Article
- Central pattern generator for vocalization: is there a vertebrate morphotype?Current opinion in neurobiology · 2014Review
- Integrative physiology of fundamental frequency control in birds.Journal of physiology, Paris · 2013Review
- Article
- The acoustic effect of vocal tract adjustments in zebra finches.Journal of comparative physiology. A, Neuroethology, sensory, neural, and behavioral physiology · 2013Article
- Behavioural and neurobiological implications of linear and non-linear features in larynx phonations of horseshoe bats.Nature communications · 2012Article
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Authors and funding
4 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Like human infants, songbirds acquire their song by imitation and eventually generate sounds that result from complicated neural networks and intrinsically nonlinear physical processes. Signatures of low-dimensional chaos such as subharmonic bifurcations have been reported in adult and developing zebra finch song. Here, we use methods from nonlinear dynamics to test whether adult male zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata) use the intrinsic nonlinear properties of their vocal organ, the syrinx, to insert subharmonic transitions in their song. In contrast to previous data on the basis of spectrographic evidence, we show that subharmonic transitions do not occur in adult song. Subharmonic transitions also do not arise in artificially induced sound in the intact syrinx, but are commonly generated in the excised syrinx. These findings suggest that subharmonic transitions are not used to increase song complexity, and that the brain controls song in a surprisingly smooth control regimen. Fast, smooth changes in acoustic elements can be produced by direct motor control in a stereotyped fashion, which is a more reliable indicator of male fitness than abrupt acoustic changes that do not require similarly precise control. Consistent with this view is the presence of high fidelity at every level of motor control, from telencephalic premotor areas to superfast syringeal muscles.
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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.