A bird's own song contributes to conspecific sang perception

WE investigated the role of developmental vocal experience in adult song pe rception by muting juvenile male zebra finches prior to song development an d testing their behavioral responses to song playback as adults. Birds were raised in a normal social and acoustic environment. Non-treated sibling co ntrol birds demonstrated statistically significant phonotactic preferences for particular conspecific familiar or novel songs. Muted birds responded t o Playbacks at chance levels, showing no preferences for individual conspec ific songs. These results suggest that the acquisition of a bird's own song may contribute to the perceptual processing, recognition, or discriminatio n of different conspecific songs. NeuroReport 10:1773-1778 (C) 1999 Lippinc ott Williams & Wilkins.