Mechanisms underlying the social enhancement of vocal learning in songbirds.

ABSTRACT: Social processes profoundly influence speech and language acquisition. Despite the importance of social influences, little is known about how social interactions modulate vocal learning. Like humans, songbirds learn their vocalizations during development, and they provide an excellent opportunity to reveal mechanisms of social influences on vocal learning. Using yoked experimental designs, we demonstrate that social interactions with adult tutors for as little as 1 d significantly enhanced vocal learning. Social influences on attention to song seemed central to the social enhancement of learning because socially tutored birds were more attentive to the tutor's songs than passively tutored birds, and because variation in attentiveness and in the social modulation of attention significantly

SUBMITTER: Chen Y 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4914165 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature