ArticleCurrent biology : CB2016
The Forebrain Song System Mediates Predictive Call Timing in Female and Male Zebra Finches.
Article in Current biology : CB, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 46 papers.
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
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Who cites it
46 citing papers in PubMed.
- Humans, but not zebra finches, produce spontaneously isochronous song through the lifespan.iScience · 2026Article
- Social familiarity strengthens neural and vocal responses to conspecific calls in zebra finches.PLoS computational biology · 2026Article
- Zebra finch tutees not only share the melody but also the rhythm of their tutor's song.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Temporal organization of song modulates vocal learning.iScience · 2025Article
- Neural Activity During Call Production in the Female Zebra Finch Homolog of the Male Forebrain Song System.The European journal of neuroscience · 2025Article
- Exploring Anatomical Links Between the Crow's Nidopallium Caudolaterale and Its Song System.The Journal of comparative neurology · 2025Article
- Temporal regularities of vocal exchange in Java sparrows.PloS one · 2025Article
- Beat-based dancing to music has evolutionary foundations in advanced vocal learning.BMC neuroscience · 2024Review
- Sensory-motor tuning allows generic features of conspecific acoustic scenes to guide rapid, adaptive, call-timing responses in túngara frogs.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2024Article
- Disinhibition enables vocal repertoire expansion after a critical period.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Role of the ventral portion of intermediate arcopallium in stability of female Bengalese finch song preferences.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
- Sex differences in vocal learning ability in songbirds are linked with differences in flexible rhythm pattern perception.Animal behaviour · 2023Article
- Wild nightingales flexibly match whistle pitch in real time.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- A neural hub for holistic courtship displays.Current biology : CB · 2023Article
- Music and Brain Circuitry: Strategies for Strengthening Evidence-Based Research for Music-Based Interventions.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2022Review
- Forebrain nuclei linked to woodpecker territorial drum displays mirror those that enable vocal learning in songbirds.PLoS biology · 2022Article
- Driving singing behaviour in songbirds using a multi-modal, multi-agent virtual environment.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- A Theoretical Framework for Human and Nonhuman Vocal Interaction.Annual review of neuroscience · 2022Review
- A feedforward inhibitory premotor circuit for auditory-vocal interactions in zebra finches.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- Reciprocal processes of sensory perception and social bonding: an integrated social-sensory framework of social behavior.Genes, brain, and behavior · 2022Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
6 authors.
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Abstract
The dichotomy between vocal learners and non-learners is a fundamental distinction in the study of animal communication. Male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) are vocal learners that acquire a song resembling their tutors', whereas females can only produce innate calls. The acoustic structure of short calls, produced by both males and females, is not learned. However, these calls can be precisely coordinated across individuals. To examine how birds learn to synchronize their calls, we developed a vocal robot that exchanges calls with a partner bird. Because birds answer the robot with stereotyped latencies, we could program it to disrupt each bird's responses by producing calls that are likely to coincide with the bird's. Within minutes, the birds learned to avoid this disruptive masking (jamming) by adjusting the timing of their responses. Notably, females exhibited greater adaptive timing plasticity than males. Further, when challenged with complex rhythms containing jamming elements, birds dynamically adjusted the timing of their calls in anticipation of jamming. Blocking the song system cortical output dramatically reduced the precision of birds' response timing and abolished their ability to avoid jamming. Surprisingly, we observed this effect in both males and females, indicating that the female song system is functional rather than vestigial. We suggest that descending forebrain projections, including the song-production pathway, function as a general-purpose sensorimotor communication system. In the case of calls, it enables plasticity in vocal timing to facilitate social interactions, whereas in the case of songs, plasticity extends to developmental changes in vocal structure.
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Registered trials
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