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Behavioural biology

Name that tune

Nature volume 432, pages 682–683 (2004)Cite this article

Understanding how early auditory memories are laid down could help to explain their role in vocal development. Some ingenious experiments in birds provide fresh ideas about how such memories are represented.

Song in birds (and speech in humans) is the culmination of the interplay between innate physiological constraints and environmental cues, including social interactions, song models and auditory feedback. The process is further shaped by developmental constraints such as the limited ‘sensitive periods’ when song models can be memorized. Researchers investigating song learning must therefore assess the degree to which a bird's success or failure to acquire a song results from interactions among these many influences. For example, when presented with tape-recorded songs of their own and other species, juvenile sparrows tend to choose the songs of their own species2. But this innate tendency can be overcome if a bird has a live tutor of another species: if the song structure falls within the capabilities of the sparrows, they can learn to sing the alien songs3.

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Figure 1

FRANK LANE PICTURE AGENCY/CORBIS

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  1. Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, 1027 East 57th Street, Chicago, 60637, Illinois, USA

    Daniel Margoliash

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  1. Daniel Margoliash
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Margoliash, D. Name that tune. Nature 432, 682–683 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/432682a

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