Adult birdsong is actively maintained by error correction

• Published in: Nature neuroscience Vol. 12; no. 7; pp. 927 - 931
• Main Authors: Sober, Samuel J, Brainard, Michael S
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: New York Nature Publishing Group US 01.07.2009; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: Analysis of Variance; Animal Genetics and Genomics; Animals; Auditory pathways; Auditory Perception; Behavioral Sciences; Biological Techniques; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biomedicine; Birds; Feedback; Finches - physiology; Headphones; Male; Neurobiology; Neurosciences; Pitch Perception; Psychomotor Performance; Sound Spectrography; Vocalization, Animal; United States
• ISSN: 1097-6256; 1546-1726
• DOI: 10.1038/nn.2336

Young birds rely on auditory feedback when learning to imitate the songs of adult birds. Here the authors find that, as with humans, birds use auditory feedback to correct vocal errors in adulthood. This suggests that lifelong error correction may be a general principle of learned vocal behavior. Humans learn to speak by a process of vocal imitation that requires the availability of auditory feedback. Similarly, young birds rely on auditory feedback when learning to imitate the songs of adult birds, providing one of the few examples of nonhuman vocal learning. However, although humans continue to use auditory feedback to correct vocal errors in adulthood, the mechanisms underlying the stability of adult birdsong are unknown. We found that, similar to human speech, adult birdsong is maintained by error correction. We perturbed the pitch (fundamental frequency) of auditory feedback in adult Bengalese finches using custom-designed headphones. Birds compensated for the imposed auditory error by adjusting the pitch of song. When the perturbation was removed, pitch returned to baseline. Our results indicate that adult birds correct vocal errors by comparing auditory feedback to a sensory target and suggest that lifelong error correction is a general principle of learned vocal behavior.