The Role of Psychology in How Songbirds Learn Their Songs - Term Paper Example

Number] Psychology Studies in psychology have shown several song-learning strategies and vocal developments in humans and animals. There can be several ways in which singing birds learn their songs in infancy, within one year of their lives, or in later stages of their lives. Some birds learn just one song or a few songs while others learn a repertoire of songs throughout their lives. These are learnt by their tutors, by listening to songs in their surrounding environments, by invention, or by imitating songs by individuals. Male songbirds tend to learn more songs then females. Songbirds have neuronal activation when they are listening, imitating, or learning a song. This research explains through the help of articles the role of psychology in how songbirds learn their songs; memorize them, and how their brain functions throughout the process. Scientists have long researched and studied about the neural mechanisms of animals. In order to understand how animals learn their songs, it was important to observe and study their mechanisms and brain functions that would tell us how they learn the songs, from where they learn them, and how they finally produce them. After extensive research and analysis of the learning and memory system of the animals, Karl Lashley (1950) finally searched the mark which is left in the brain after the learning experience (Bolhuis 129). He carried out many experiments and observation and concluded that maybe there is no learning and memory. Attempts such as those that he made are more employed to this day because scientific advancements were not available in Lashley’s time. The behaviour of animals has been evidence that their brains and neural mechanisms function towards learning and memory. Animals tend to react and respond to situations and they show actions such as eating and hunting which is evidence that their neural receptors collaborate to their learning process. Evidence could also be seen from the mating and sexual imprinting which was investigated in birds. It showed that several birds are involved in the learning process and their brains actively function towards selectivity and mating preferences (Bolhuis 132). Singing of the songbirds is another neural analysis which has been carried out for the evidence of neural mechanisms of behaviour. The learning, production, and output of the songs were analysed with the neural mechanisms in consideration. Despite extensive research, there is still limited data about the memory of songbirds and scientists are still trying to figure where the songs are stored. Most of the birds come under the category of songbirds. Songbirds usually start learning the songs at an early age from an adult tutor of the same species. There are usually two phases of song learning in songbirds: the first is the memory phase where the song learnt by the tutor is saved and second is the sensorimotor phase when the songbird produced vocal output related to the songs that they have saved. The memory phase is usually active in the early stages of life when the songbirds go through auditory experiences from their tutors. The second phase comes later in life when the songbirds are ready to produce their own songs (Bolhuis 131). Songbirds are usually found in almost all the parts of the world. Many of them have often been observed as singing complex songs as adults. The male songbirds have a deeper tendency to sing complex songs than females and moreover, the male songbirds also have a diversified number of songs in length and vocals. Complexity and length also depends on the specie of the songbird. People enjoy songbirds and their melodies but science tells us how the songs need to be developed in the birds just like every other characteristic they have. Songbirds have choices and preferences for songs and this choice is not an instinctual or natural process (Gobes 790). The urge to sing in songbirds is natural but the songs that they have to learn, memorize, and sing are developed throughout their lives starting from an early stage. Songbirds often know when and where to learn their songs from. This behaviour of the songbirds is long studied by various researches and scientists to understand the neurological process. The research is still ongoing and developing. Songbirds are heard singing different songs in different regions and situations. These birds know their songs and these different songs are also the results of different processes of learning. Some basic learning strategies may be the same but every songbird goes through a unique style of learning just like humans do (Gobes 791). Some songbird species learn their songs during the first few months while others can take all their lives. Similar to humans, even birds have different cognitive abilities and some are highly motivated while others are slow in learning. In some species, the songs are imitated accurately and they have a universal song which is consistent from years in their generations. These species may also have the tendency to copy the songs exactly how they hear them whether they are from their conspecific tutors or from other species with whom they socialize. Songbirds may also take bits of songs from various places and combine them to form their own song. Songbirds can learn songs, sing isolate songs, compose them, or have naturally learned songs from their surrounding environment. Researchers have also recognized the template in the songbirds which is responsible for the song acquisition that takes place. The concept of template shows that songbirds usually would respond more to the songs and auditory sounds of those of the same species. If a songbird is exposed to the same number of songs from the same species and same number of tape songs, their own song will comprise of more songs from their own species. This is due to the template which is present in their brains. The birds of the same specie tend to have a similar or same template which is why they respond more to the songs of their own specie. They learn the songs that match their template and memorize them more easily. This concept of template is also challenged by some researches as they have found that songbirds are very much likely to learn from other specie tutors if they are spending more time since infancy with them and if they socially interact with them more (Bolhuis 134). This template concept is authentic as many songbirds have been observed to respond more of their own species tutor in their songs. But it is sometimes known as a rough template which is active only till the songbird develops its own vocal output throughout the second phase in its life. The sensorimotor phase leads to a refined template as the birds start singing its own songs which are different from the one on the tough template. Birds produce their own songs and they would usually alter according to every breeding season. But some species do not alter their songs frequently and they sing the ones they learnt from their tutors on their rough template throughout their lives (Bolhuis 135). Vocal learning in humans and animals defines the ability to learn new vocalizations or enhance the existing vocalizations as per the tutoring or cues acquired from the surrounding environment. There can be several non-auditory cues from the surroundings as well that tend to influence the vocalizations such as heavy emotions of sadness and depression may lead the humans or animals to make loud cry noises without learning them prior (Winer 561). However, this research focuses on the auditory cues from the environment which are memorized and help in vocalizations. Vocal learning and auditory learning is different as vocal learning focuses more on a vocal output. Vocal learning may also tend to have specific forms in different species unlike auditory learning (Winer 561). There are more auditory pathways in the brains of songbirds, parrots, and humming birds than humans and other mammals. Observations and studies have also suggested recently that these songbirds do not have restricted vocal learning as their vocal learning forms can expand to various other patterns such as learning to sing duets. The songbirds’ memory of songs comes from an acquired sensory template which is achieved in the early phase of development and is very sensitive to the surrounding environment cues (Winer 562). Songbirds can learn their own songs or tutor songs. The birds that live in isolation tend to produce abnormal songs but these abnormal songs also require an auditory feedback. In the sensory phase of vocal learning, the juvenile birds choose a song as a model and respond to it. These birds do not choose just any song as a model; they have more chances of choosing a conspecific song rather than a heterospecific song. The birds also copy the conspecific songs better as compared to heterospecific songs (Winer 563). Heterospecific songs may have complex syllables that have to be acquired by the birds in order to learn the song. An example is some universal sounds of certain species such as the singing voice of the cuckoos. Psychology discusses the song system pathways in birds which explain how they learn the songs. The songbird usually has two pathways namely the posterior vocal pathway and the anterior forebrain pathway. The posterior vocal pathway is responsible for the audio input into the song system where the song is learnt and memorized. This pathway is more functioning and active, and is mostly responsible for the song production in male songbirds. The brain nuclei in the songbirds tend to perform functions of selectivity and guiding the selection of the song model. It distributes and localizes the song model after distinguishing and recognizing the conspecific and heterospecific songs (Winer 563). There is a hierarchy and certain levels of selectivity in the songbird’s auditory system. The first level is the Field L where the heterospecific and synthetic sounds are distinguished from the conspecific songs by the neurons. The second level is the Caudomedial Nidopallium (NCM) and the caudal mesopallium (CM) that has neurons responding to the complex sounds that are behaviourally specific, such as sounds that are familiar or heard previously (Winer 565). The Field L, NCM, and CM neurons also tend to respond to bird’s own songs (BOS) playbacks. The forebrain auditory pathway is responsible for song selectivity but the neurons of Field L, NCM, and CM tend to respond with a special form of BOS selectivity in song system (Winer 565). Female songbirds do not sing but they do have a memory of a male conspecific song. They have similar memory formations like males but their nuclei are generally observed to be smaller than males. Female song systems greatly respond to regional conditions and they also tend to respond spontaneously and rapidly. Their song system and memory formations are observed at various places as they were recorded with activated memory functions and responsiveness (Winer 566). However, song learning and the adult maintenance is an ongoing process in songbirds as what they learn is maintained throughout their adult life. Sleeping also greatly helps the songbirds to retain the songs learnt and to replay the auditory representations. The anterior forebrain pathway (AFP) is responsible for sending the song produced to the motor circuit where the songbirds sing it (Winer 566). The AFP also allows the songbirds to start learning at an early age and if something goes wrong with it, the learning will probably stop. So a deactivated AFP wouldn’t be able to send the songs to the motor circuit for output even when the songs are successfully learnt. The AFP is fully responsible for the learning of songs in songbirds including experimenting and sequencing (Winer 566) It has been researched that there are two phases when the songbird’s neuronal activation takes place. The males and females both have neuronal activations when they hear a song but only the male’s neuronal activation takes place when it actually starts singing the song. Since many female songbirds don’t sing, their second neural activation doesn’t take place in their lives but their neural mechanism of listening and learning the sing is activated when they hear the song from the tutor (Bolhuis 135). Moreover, the male songbirds’ songs usually play a part in attracting the females for sexual behaviours or reproduction. The neural activation in the females allows them to distinguish between the conspecific songs and heterospecific songs. They can also recognize the songs that are tutored within their species. Female songbirds do not sing but they have a strong response to songs and receive them well. They are good in song communication and thus they take is as their tool for choosing their partner for mating. Further research in female songbirds’ neural mechanisms is being carried out by scientists. It is, however, confirmed that female songbirds do have a song system which they use in their lives to learn songs (Bolhuis 136) Songbirds usually go through the same process of vocal development as humans. The young songbirds learn their songs from an adult conspecific tutor just like an infant acquires speech from adults. The NCM of the adult songbird reactivates when it is re-exposed to the tutor’s song in adult age. This activation is now reflected to the song imitation. The NCM plays a major part in demonstrating the tutor song memory of the songbird. In both humans and birds, the brain regions tend to play a part in song recognition and vocal production. Young songbirds learn the most from their tutors. The production of the BOS depends greatly on how often the songbird heard the tutor sing and what the birds’ preferences are. The BOS usually reflects most of the tutor’s song. The birds that have a lesser inclination towards their NCM region of the brain would tend to be restricted towards more learning and would be less motivated to learn from the tutor. Their preferences may differ and they may not store the songs in memory. The songbirds reflect their tutor’s songs in their songs and mostly they are simply copying them until further stages in life when they alter those songs to create their own (Gobes 791). Research showed that male songbirds gave more preference to their tutor songs instead of their own. The NCM had been analyzed as the necessary factor for tutor-song memory. The NCM doesn’t have much to do with the production of the song or the song discrimination. It is the basic part of the songbird that represents its tutor-song memory and is responsible for producing the tutor songs that the bird has been memorizing and learning since an early age. This part of the brain region is parallel to that of humans. In humans also, this region of the brain is responsible for the speech perception and memory. The vocal learning mechanisms in humans and songbirds are continually under development and will have a continued dynamic interaction throughout their lives (Gobes 790) However, songbirds have a neurological functioning of their brain which is still under research process and not fully developed. Much of the details of the neural activations, representations, NCM, CM, and Field L are discussed in this research and they explain the way songbirds learn their songs and produce them. Vocal development in birds and humans are parallel as they work together and go through different phases of vocal learning and production. Work Cited Bolhuis Johan. Bird brains and songs: neural mechanisms of birdsong perception and memory. Leiden: Animal Biology, 2003 Gobes Sharon. Birdsong Memory: A Neural Dissociation between Song Recognition and Production. The Netherlands: Elsevier, 2007 Winer Jeffery. The Auditory Cortex: Chapter 26; Auditory Memories and Feedback Processing for Vocal Learning by Ana Amador and Daniel Margoliash. USA: Springer, 2010 Read More