Wild nightingales flexibly match whistle pitch in real time.

ABSTRACT: Interactive vocal communication, similar to a human conversation, requires flexible and real-time changes to vocal output in relation to preceding auditory stimuli. These vocal adjustments are essential to ensuring both the suitable timing and content of the interaction. Precise timing of dyadic vocal exchanges has been investigated in a variety of species, including humans. In contrast, the ability of non-human animals to accurately adjust specific spectral features of vocalization extemporaneously in response to incoming auditory information is less well studied. One spectral feature of acoustic signals is the fundamental frequency, which we perceive as pitch. Many animal species can discriminate between sound frequencies, but real-time detection and reproduction of an arbitrary pitch ha

SUBMITTER: Costalunga G 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10414052 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature