Integrating Perception and Communication: The Function of Acoustic Fine Structure in Natural Zebra Finch Communication

感知与交流的整合：声学精细结构在天然斑胸草雀交流中的作用

• 批准号: 2321788
• 负责人: Nora Prior
• 金额: $ 42.13万
• 依托单位: Cornell University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-01-15 至 2026-12-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2321788&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Integrating; Perception; Communication; Function; Acoustic

Birds and humans have an overlapping hearing range, but this does not mean they are perceiving complex sounds the same way. In fact, birds have an auditory temporal processing ability that far exceeds humans. From research on humans, it has been shown that such temporal processing abilities make it easier to understand speech in noisy environments and facilitate the identification of familiar talkers. Thus far, there has been no research testing the function of bird’s enhanced temporal processing ability. This proposal will test the function of birds exceptional temporal processing ability. It would be striking if birds are using these fine acoustic details which lab studies have shown they are capable of hearing. Such acoustic details have so far been largely beyond the scope of what traditional biological approaches have been able to capture. Thus, this proposal may fundamentally impact how birdsong is described going forward. Reciprocally, studying bird species with such exceptional temporal processing abilities may have broader impact on research related to individual differences in hearing of people over their lifetime. Finally, both being around and listening to birds is something many people enjoy. Therefore, this proposal also includes developing an accessible multimedia outreach program. Too often disabled people are excluded from active participation in outreach programs due to different communication abilities. Furthermore, there is a powerful opportunity to leverage diversity in animal communication to help create inclusive spaces for thinking about and relating to diversity in human communication. To understand mechanisms of social behavior and communication, it is critical to have a comprehensive understanding of the perceptual space, or ‘umwelt,’ of a species. This proposal combines expertise in social behavior with the precision of a psychophysical approach. A bird’s ability to discriminate fine acoustic details in vocalizations is about ten times better than a human’s ability. So far, this exceptional ability to discriminate acoustic fine structure (AFS) has been identified in all seven avian species studied. This proposal aims to discover potential functions of this perceptual ability in birds. To properly situate the perception of AFS in the natural ecology of birds, this proposal pursues three distinct lines of inquiry. (1) To determine whether perception of AFS shapes vocal learning, song learning experiments will be conducted using natural and artificial stimuli that vary in their complexity and type of AFS. (2) To test the effect of noise on an individual’s ability to perceive natural vocal signals, classic psychophysical experiments will be used. (3) To identify the role of AFS in shaping social communication, artificial and natural stimuli will be used to determine if AFS is important during courtship and pair bonding. Combined these three perspectives will clarify the function of bird’s perceptual ability in natural communicative contexts. Furthermore, these studies will provide a foundation for future research aiming to integrate basic perception and natural ethology more fully across taxa.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.

鸟类和人类的听力范围重叠，但这并不意味着它们以相同的方式感知复杂的声音。实际上，鸟类具有听觉临时处理能力，远远超过了人类。从对人类的研究中，已经表明，这种临时处理能力使在嘈杂环境中了解语音并促进熟悉的说话者的识别变得更加容易。这么远，没有研究测试鸟类增强的临时加工能力的功能。该建议将测试鸟类特殊临时加工能力的功能。如果鸟类使用这些精美的声学细节，那将是令人惊讶的，这些细节表明它们能够听到。到目前为止，这种声学细节在很大程度上已经超出了传统生物学方法能够捕获的范围。这就是该提议可能从根本上影响未来的鸟鸣声。相互研究，研究具有出色临时加工能力的鸟类可能会对与人的一生中听力的个体差异有关的研究产生更广泛的影响。最后，两个人都在附近和听鸟儿。因此，该建议还包括制定一项可访问的多媒体外展计划。由于沟通能力的不同，往往将残疾人被排除在积极参与外展计划之外。此外，还有一个有力的机会来利用动物交流中的多样性，以帮助创造包容性的空间，以思考和与人类交流的多样性有关。要了解社会行为和沟通的机制，对物种的感知空间或“ umwelt”有一个全面的理解至关重要。该建议将社会行为的专业知识与心理物理方法的精确性相结合。鸟在发声中区分精美的声学细节的能力是人类能力的十倍。到目前为止，在所有七种鸟类种子中都鉴定出了这种歧视声学结构（AFS）的特殊能力。该建议旨在发现鸟类感知能力的潜在功能。为了适当地将AFS的感知放在鸟类的自然生态中，该提议追求了三种不同的探究线。 （1）为了确定对AFS的感知是否形成了声音学习，歌曲学习实验将使用自然和人工刺激进行，这些刺激的复杂性和AFS类型各不相同。 （2）测试噪声对个人感知自然声音信号能力的影响，将使用经典的心理物理实验。 （3）要确定AFS在塑造社会交流中的作用，将使用人工和自然刺激来确定AFS在求爱过程中是否很重要并配对。这三种观点的结合将阐明鸟类在自然交流环境中的感知能力的功能。此外，这些研究将为未来的研究奠定基础，旨在在整个分类单元中更充分地整合基本的看法和自然伦理学。该奖项反映了NSF的法定任务，并通过使用基金会的知识分子优点和更广泛的影响评估标准，认为通过评估而被视为珍贵的支持。