Rivera-Cáceres Karla D, Templeton Christopher N
Department of Biology, University of Miami, Coral Gables, FL, USA.
Department of Biology, Pacific University, Forest Grove, OR, USA; School of Biology, University of St Andrews, St Andrews, Scotland, UK.
Behav Processes. 2019 Jun;163:71-80. doi: 10.1016/j.beproc.2017.12.007. Epub 2017 Dec 25.
Avian song learning has a rich history of study and has become the preeminent system for understanding the ontogeny of vocal communication in animals. Song learning in birds has many parallels with human language learning, ranging from the neural mechanisms involved to the importance of social factors in shaping signal acquisition. While much has been learned about the process of song learning, virtually all of the research done to date has focused on temperate species, where often only one sex (the male) sings. Duetting species, in which both males and females learn to sing and learn to combine their songs into temporally coordinated joint displays, could provide many insights into the processes by which vocal learning takes place. Here we highlight three key features of song learning-neuroendocrine control mechanisms, timing and life history stages of song acquisition, and the role of social factors in song selection and use-that have been elucidated from species where only males sing, and compare these with duetting species. We summarize what is known about song learning in duetting species and then provide several suggestions for fruitful directions for future research. We suggest that focusing research efforts on duetting species could significantly advance our understanding of vocal learning in birds and further cement the importance of avian species as models for understanding human conversations and the processes of vocal learning more broadly.
鸟类鸣叫学习有着丰富的研究历史，已成为理解动物发声交流个体发育的卓越系统。鸟类的鸣叫学习与人类语言学习有许多相似之处，从涉及的神经机制到社会因素在塑造信号习得中的重要性。虽然我们对鸣叫学习过程已经有了很多了解，但迄今为止几乎所有的研究都集中在温带物种上，在这些物种中通常只有一种性别（雄性）会鸣叫。在二重唱物种中，雄性和雌性都学习鸣叫，并学会将它们的歌声组合成时间上协调的联合展示，这可以为发声学习发生的过程提供许多见解。在这里，我们强调从只有雄性鸣叫的物种中阐明的鸣叫学习的三个关键特征——神经内分泌控制机制、鸣叫习得的时间和生命史阶段，以及社会因素在鸣叫选择和使用中的作用，并将这些与二重唱物种进行比较。我们总结了关于二重唱物种鸣叫学习的已知信息，然后为未来富有成效的研究方向提供了一些建议。我们建议将研究重点放在二重唱物种上，可以显著推进我们对鸟类发声学习的理解，并进一步巩固鸟类作为理解人类对话和更广泛发声学习过程模型的重要性。
