Collaborative Research: Referential alarm calling as a window into the mechanisms and evolution of a complex cognitive phenotype

合作研究：参考警报呼叫作为了解复杂认知表型的机制和演化的窗口

• 批准号: 2417581
• 负责人: Mark Hauber
• 金额: $ 63.25万
• 依托单位: Research Foundation CUNY - Advanced Science Research Center
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2024
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2024-02-01 至 2025-05-31
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=2417581&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Collaborative; Research; Referential; alarm; calling

In avian brood parasitism, birds lay their eggs into others’ nests, leaving the foster hosts to look after the parasitic young. Some hosts combat such parasitism by actively defending their nests from adult parasites. Yellow Warblers (Setophaga petechia) produce unique "seet" calls to warn about the presence of Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater). In response to seet calls, female warblers return to sit tightly on the nest to prevent cowbird parasitism. This means that, much like words in human languages, seet calls symbolize cowbird parasitism for the warblers. The project’s aim is to understand how hosts perceive and process the acoustic and functional meaning of these symbolic signals by studying the behavioral responses (in the field) and neurophysiological patterns (using fMRI) of warblers to the cowbird’s own calls, seet calls, and other sounds typical of the warbler’s habitat. The grant will train a postdoctoral fellow, three PhD students, one Master's student, and at least eight undergraduate researchers, including students from groups underrepresented in STEM fields. The researchers will write and share case studies based on their research as open online educational resources for undergraduate courses in organismal biology. Additional broader impacts will include bird banding workshops for the general public, especially during the vibrant migratory seasons in central Illinois and Michigan. Finally, a short 3D virtual reality film-feature will be produced entitled "A Day in the Life of the Cowbird", featuring characteristic daily activities of parasitic birds and their interactions with hosts, as seen from the parasite's own eyes' perspective.Current and past research on alarm calling in animals has often focused on the detailed discovery and characterization of the meaning of referential communication signals. However, the sensory-perceptual abilities of animals to recognize referential calls and the potentially high-level neural processing that ultimately leads to a specific behavioral response have not yet been fully explored. Through integrating field and laboratory experiments and levels of analyses, this research aims to test the overarching hypothesis that referential signaling requires high-level cognitive abilities. Using Yellow Warblers’ anti-brood parasitic alarm calls to Brown-headed Cowbirds as a study system, four specific predictions will be assessed regarding that referential calling (i) involves perceptual equivalency of alarm calls and their referents, (ii) is socially acquired but may be modified by personal experience with cowbirds, (iii) involves mental imagery, episodic-like memory, and mental time travel, modifying future behavior so as to decrease risks to fitness, and (iv) is a functionally specific response to obligate brood parasitism. The project couples behavioral and population-level predictions of Yellow Warblers' responses to seet calls with probing of developmental trajectories and neural substrates of referential communication in wild birds via in vivo imaging (fMRI) to repeatedly collect data across development. This integrative research will provide new perspectives on the cognitive ecology and mechanisms of referential communication, including potentially transformative understanding of the neural substrates underlying the perception of symbolic calls, the existence of mental time travel in novel contexts, and the functional substrates of referential signaling.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.

在鸟类巢寄生中，鸟类将卵产在其他巢穴中，让寄养宿主照顾寄生幼鸟，一些宿主通过积极保护巢穴免受成年寄生虫的侵害来对抗这种寄生现象。雌性莺会鸣叫警告褐头牛鹂（Molothrus ater）的出现，并紧紧地坐在巢中以防止它们的出现。这意味着，就像人类语言中的单词一样，seet 呼叫象征着莺类的牛鹂寄生。该项目的目的是通过研究行为反应来了解宿主如何感知和处理这些符号信号的声音和功能意义。该赠款将培训一名博士后研究员、三名博士生。学生、一名硕士生研究员和至少八名本科生研究人员，包括来自 STEM 领域代表性不足的群体的学生，研究人员将根据他们的研究撰写和分享案例研究，作为生物生物学本科课程的开放在线教育资源。将包括为公众举办鸟类环志研讨会，特别是在伊利诺伊州中部和密歇根州充满活力的迁徙季节。最后，将制作一部名为“牛鸟生命中的一天”的短片，以特色日常为特色。的活动寄生鸟类及其与寄主的相互作用，从寄生虫自己的眼睛的角度来看。当前和过去对动物警报呼叫的研究通常集中在参考通信信号含义的详细发现和表征上，然而，感官知觉。动物识别参考呼叫的能力以及最终导致特定行为反应的潜在高级神经处理尚未得到充分探索，通过整合现场和实验室实验以及分析水平，本研究旨在检验以下总体假设：参考信号需要使用黄莺对棕头牛鹂的反巢寄生警报呼叫作为研究系统，将评估关于参考呼叫的四个具体预测（i）涉及警报呼叫及其所指对象的感知等效性，（ ii) 是社会获得的，但可能会因与牛鹂的个人经历而改变，(iii) 涉及心理意象、情景记忆和心理时间旅行，改变未来的行为以降低健康风险，以及 (iv)是对专性巢寄生的功能特异性反应，该项目将黄莺对叫声的反应的行为和种群水平预测与通过体内成像（fMRI）反复探测野生鸟类的发育轨迹和参考交流的神经基础相结合。这项综合研究将为认知生态学和参照交流机制提供新的视角，包括对符号调用感知背后的神经基础的潜在变革性理解、心理时间的存在。该奖项反映了 NSF 的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

项目成果

Invasive shrub species as nest substrates do not appear to impact nest failure for Yellow Warblers (Setophaga petechia)

作为巢穴基质的入侵灌木物种似乎不会影响黄莺（Setophaga petechia）的巢穴失败

• 发表时间: 2024-02
• 期刊: The Wilson journal of ornithology
• 作者: Enos JK; Lawson SL
• 通讯作者: Lawson SL

Functional neurogenomic responses to acoustic threats, including a heterospecific referential alarm call and its referent, in the auditory forebrain of red-winged blackbirds

红翅黑鸟听觉前脑对声音威胁的功能性神经基因组反应，包括异种参考警报及其所指对象

• DOI: 10.1038/s41598-024-51797-y
• 发表时间: 2024-01-25
• 期刊: Scientific Reports
• 影响因子: 4.6
• 作者: Antonson, N. D.;Enos, J. K.;Lawson, S. L.;Uy, F. M. K.;Gill, S. A.;Lynch, K. S.;Hauber, M. E.
• 通讯作者: Hauber, M. E.