Emotional responses to conspecific distress calls are modulated by affiliation in cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus).

ABSTRACT: Vocal communication is used across the animal kingdom to transfer information from emitters to receivers, such as size, sex, age, dominance status or even emotional states. The transmission of an emotional state from one individual to another is called "emotional contagion" and is classified as the first level of empathy. Emotional contagion is thought to be stronger between familiar individuals. While affiliation represents a stronger relation between individuals than mere familiarity, it remains understudied whether affiliation modulates emotional reactions as well. Using cockatiels (Nymphicus hollandicus), we played back three types of audio stimuli to individual birds: a partner's distress call (emitted when birds are caught or forcibly restrained), a non-partner's distress call, and a

SUBMITTER: Lievin-Bazin A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6177178 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature