Behavioural responses to video and live presentations of females reveal a dissociation between performance and motivational aspects of birdsong

Abstract

Behavioural responses to video and live presentations4 of females reveal a dissociation between performance 5 and motivational aspects of birdsong 6 7 8 9 ABSTRACT 29Understanding the regulation of social behavioural expression requires insight into 30 motivational and performance aspects of social behaviours. While a number of studies 31 have independently investigated motivational or performance aspects of social 32 behaviours, few have examined how these aspects relate to each other. By comparing 33 behavioural variation in response to live or video presentations of conspecific females, 34we analysed how variation in the motivation to produce courtship song covaries with 35 variation in performance aspects of courtship song in male zebra finches (Taeniopygia 36 guttata). Consistent with previous reports, we observed that male zebra finches were 37 less motivated to produce courtship songs to videos of females than to live 38 presentations of females. However, we found that acoustic features that reflect song 39 performance were indistinguishable between songs produced to videos of females and 40 songs produced to live presentations of females. For example, songs directed at video 41 presentations of females were just as fast and stereotyped as songs directed at live 42 females. These experimental manipulations and correlational analyses reveal a 43 dissociation between motivational and performance aspects of birdsong and suggest a 44 refinement of neural models of song production and control. In addition, they support 45 the efficacy of videos to study both motivational and performance aspects of social 46 behaviours. 47 48The extent and quality of various social displays, including communicative and 53 courtship behaviours, reflect an individual's motivation and performance. Motivation 54 refers to the "drive" to display a behaviour whereas performance refers to the fine 55 motoric aspects of the behaviour. For example, internal and external states can affect 56 the likelihood of displaying maternal behaviours (e.g., pup retrieval and grooming), and 57 the latency and efficiency of pup-directed behaviours can vary between individuals as 58 well as within individuals over time (Champagne et al., 2003; Clark et al., 2002; 59 Stolzenberg et al., 2012). Both the motivation to engage in maternal behaviours and the 60 performance of various components of maternal behaviour have important 61 developmental consequences, and such findings highlight the importance of 62 investigating both motivation and performance to gain a comprehensive understanding 63 of social behaviour (Meaney, 2001; Rilling and Young, 2014). However, motivation and 64 performance are often studied independently, and relatively little is known about the 65 relationship between mechanisms regulating motivational and performance aspects of 66 behaviour. In particular, little is known about the extent to which factors that affect the 67 motivation to display a behaviour similarly affect the performance of the behaviour. 68 69Birdsong provides an ...

CineFinch: An animated female zebra finch for studying courtship interactions

“…S2A). As reported earlier (James et al, 2019), song bouts directed to either of the videos were considerably shorter than song bouts directed to a live female (Fig. 1E).…”

“…1). Both in earlier studies (James et al, 2019) and our experiments, videos were played without sounds. Live females call and so, when presented with a live female, male birds would experience both visual and auditory stimuli.…”

“…We did not perform any apriori sample size calculations. All statistical analyses was done with R. Sample sizes used were comparable to other studies (Ikebuchi and Okanoya, 1999; James et al, 2019; Takahasi et al, 2005) Generalized Linear Mixed Models (GLMMs) were used to statistically analyse the data. We considered each song bout as a single unit and considered all song bouts across trial types for statistical analyses.…”

“…Females also respond with vocalizations and tail-quivering displays (Zann, 1996). Male zebra finches sing to taxidermically stuffed female zebra finches and to videos of female zebra finches and the characteristics of these songs are highly similar to courtship song directed at a live female bird (Bischof et al, 1981;Galoch and Bischof, 2007;James et al, 2019). In addition to courtship interactions, male zebra finches also interact with juvenile zebra finches during tutoring sessions.…”