ArticleScientific reports2023
Song preferences predict the quality of vocal learning in zebra finches.
Article in Scientific reports, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 8 papers.
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Who cites it
8 citing papers in PubMed.
- Vocal and social impairments in songbirds embryonically exposed to an autism risk factor.iScience · 2026Article
- The Amygdala Regulates Social Motivation for Selective Vocal Imitation in Zebra Finches.The Journal of neuroscience : the official journal of the Society for Neuroscience · 2025Article
- Conserving avian vocal culture.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2025Review
- Context-dependent modulations in zebra finch distance calls revealed by a novel goal-directed vocalization paradigm.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Oxytocin receptor antagonism during early vocal learning reduces song preference and imitation in zebra finches.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Machine learning and statistical classification of birdsong link vocal acoustic features with phylogeny.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Expression of oxytocin receptors in the zebra finch brain during vocal development.Developmental neurobiology · 2022Article
- Song Preference in Female and Juvenile Songbirds: Proximate and Ultimate Questions.Frontiers in physiology · 2022Review
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Authors and funding
7 authors.
Funding
Abstract
In songbirds, learning to sing is a highly social process that likely involves social reward. Here, we tested the hypothesis that during song learning, the reward value of hearing a particular song predicts the degree to which that song will ultimately be learned. We measured the early song preferences of young male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) in an operant key-pressing assay; each of two keys was associated with a higher likelihood of playing the song of the father or that of another familiar adult ("neighbor"). To minimize the effects of exposure on learning, we implemented a novel reinforcement schedule that allowed us to detect preferences while balancing exposure to each song. On average, the juveniles significantly preferred the father's song early during song learning, before actual singing occurs in this species. When they reached adulthood, all the birds copied the father's song. The accuracy with which the father's song was imitated was positively correlated with the peak strength of the preference for the father's song during the sensitive period of song learning. Our results show that preference for the song of a chosen tutor, in this case the father, predicted vocal learning during development.
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