ArticleeLife2019
Correlated evolution between repertoire size and song plasticity predicts that sexual selection on song promotes open-ended learning.
Article in eLife, 2019. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 14 papers.
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Who cites it
14 citing papers in PubMed.
- The effects of sleep disturbance on a songbird's vocal performance.Proceedings. Biological sciences · 2025Article
- Seasonal patterns of neurogenesis in European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are region- and sex-specific.Journal of neuroendocrinology · 2025Article
- Lack of sex-specific syllables and high female song variability support relaxed selection on female song in Orchard Orioles (The Wilson journal of ornithology · 2025Article
- Review
- "The song remains the same": not really! Vocal flexibility in the song of the indris.Animal cognition · 2023Article
- Songbird species that display more-complex vocal learning are better problem-solvers and have larger brains.Science (New York, N.Y.) · 2023Article
- Modeling how population size drives the evolution of birdsong, a functional cultural trait.Evolution; international journal of organic evolution · 2022Article
- Syntax errors do not disrupt acoustic communication in the common cuckoo.Scientific reports · 2022Article
- Variation in vocal production learning across songbirds.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- The many functions of vocal learning.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2021Review
- Balanced imitation sustains song culture in zebra finches.Nature communications · 2021Article
- An Unbiased Molecular Approach Using 3'-UTRs Resolves the Avian Family-Level Tree of Life.Molecular biology and evolution · 2021Article
- The Role of the Learner in the Cultural Evolution of Vocalizations.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Article
- Identification, Analysis and Characterization of Base Units of Bird Vocal Communication: The White Spectacled Bulbul (Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience · 2021Article
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Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Some oscine songbird species modify their songs throughout their lives ('adult song plasticity' or 'open-ended learning'), while others crystallize their songs around sexual maturity. It remains unknown whether the strength of sexual selection on song characteristics, such as repertoire size, affects adult song plasticity, or whether adult song plasticity affects song evolution. Here, we compiled data about song plasticity, song characteristics, and mating system and then examined evolutionary interactions between these traits. Across 67 species, we found that lineages with adult song plasticity show directional evolution toward increased syllable and song repertoires, while several other song characteristics evolved faster, but in a non-directional manner. Song plasticity appears to drive bi-directional transitions between monogamous and polygynous social mating systems. Notably, our analysis of correlated evolution suggests that extreme syllable and song repertoire sizes drive the evolution of adult song plasticity or stability, providing novel evidence that sexual selection may indirectly influence open- versus closed-ended learning.
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