The Sub-Syllabic Symphonies Of Self-Learning: How Do Zebra Finches Sing Them?

Author

Abiesha Abiola Budiman, The Graduate Center, City University of New YorkFollow

Date of Degree

6-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

M.S.

Program

Cognitive Neuroscience

Advisor

Dina Lipkind

Subject Categories

Animal Sciences | Cognitive Neuroscience | Life Sciences | Ornithology | Other Neuroscience and Neurobiology

Keywords

Zebra Finches, Self-Learning, Motor Learning, Vocal Learning, Sub-Syllabic Notes

Abstract

Learning is a lifelong journey, where the mind and muscle dance to a tune of memory and motion. It begins at infancy and continues throughout life, encompassing everything from singing to achieving peak performance in sports. Complex motor skills involve multiple components and require coordination of several muscles. Humans and animals are extremely adept at learning complex motor skills on their own. However, we do not completely understand how self-directed learning works. One group of animals used to observe self-directed learning are songbirds. Zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata, are one of the most studied songbird species due to their well-defined critical period for vocal learning, ease of breeding in captivity, and the parallels between their song learning and human motor skill learning. In this study, we are building upon previous research to investigate how zebra finches compare the structure inside a syllable (sub-syllabic notes) to the song they are singing in order to self-learn the song they are hearing. This study will shed light on whether matching the sub-syllabic notes by serial order serve as the primary unit of comparison or whether acoustic similarity is the one calling the proverbial shots.

To answer this question, we created a mismatch between what the zebra finch is singing and what he is hearing. Using plastic dummies of adult males that deliver song recordings, we trained juvenile zebra finches to learn one song (source model) and once they have learned it, we expose them to recordings of a second song (target model). The juveniles will then change their singing of the source song to increase its similarity to the target song. Results showed that three juvenile zebra finches learned the target song by matching the sub-syllabic notes by serial order: the songbirds compared the sub-syllabic notes of the source and target models by serial order in order to self-detect and correct the mismatch between the song they are singing and the song they are hearing.

Recommended Citation

Budiman, Abiesha Abiola, "The Sub-Syllabic Symphonies Of Self-Learning: How Do Zebra Finches Sing Them?" (2025). CUNY Academic Works.
https://academicworks.cuny.edu/gc_etds/6229