Sex Differences in Rhythmic Preferences in the Budgerigar (Melopsittacus undulatus): A Comparative Study with Humans

Abstract

A variety of parrot species have recently gained attention as members of a small group of non-human animals that are capable of coordinating their movements in time with a rhythmic pulse. This capacity is highly developed in humans, who display unparalleled sensitivity to musical beats and appear to prefer rhythmically organized sounds in their music. Do parrots also exhibit a preference for rhythmic over arrhythmic sounds? Here, we presented humans and budgerigars (Melopsittacus undulatus) – a small parrot species that have been shown to be able to align movements with a beat – with rhythmic and arrhythmic sound patterns in an acoustic place preference paradigm. Both species were allowed to explore an environment for 5 min. We quantified how much time they spent in proximity to rhythmic vs. arrhythmic stimuli. The results show that humans spent more time with rhythmic stimuli, and also preferred rhythmic stimuli when directly asked in a post-test survey. Budgerigars did not show any such overall preferences. However, further examination of the budgerigar results showed an effect of sex, such that male budgerigars spent more time with arrthymic stimuli, and female budgerigars spent more time with rhythmic stimuli. Our results support the idea that rhythmic information is interesting to budgerigars. We suggest that future investigations into the temporal characteristics of naturalistic social behaviors in budgerigars, such as courtship vocalizations and head-bobbing displays, may help explain the sex difference we observed.

Is consonance attractive to budgerigars? No evidence from a place preference study

“…Figure 1 shows a diagram of the place preference chamber used to test humans. A large rectangular room was divided into two sides by a bisecting wall as described by Hoeschele and Bowling (2016). The left and right side were identical: they were lit by an overhead lighting fixture and contained a single speaker (M-Audio AV 40, Cumberland, RI, USA) placed at the end opposite the entrance to the chamber.…”

“…The outer walls, ceiling, and floor of the chamber were the walls of the anechoic room, except for the entrance wall, which was made out of large cardboard sheets and heavy blankets. The bisecting wall was made out of heavy sheets of wood, cardboard, and blankets (Figure adapted from Hoeschele and Bowling 2016) room. This was done to reduce transmission of sound from one side of the chamber to the other.…”

Nest‐associated vocal behaviours of the south‐eastern red‐tailed black cockatoo, Calyptorhynchus banksii graptogyne, and the Kangaroo Island glossy black cockatoo, C. lathami halmaturinus

“…Individualised drumming styles, including variations in rhythm, suggest that information about the male may be conveyed to females (Heinsohn et al 2017). In budgerigars, Melopsittacus undulatus, experiments show that females prefer rhythmic sounds, which may relate to a preference for rhythm (as yet untested) in the head-bobbing sexual display given by males of the species (Hoeschele & Bowling 2016). In the current study, observed display calls were always given by adult males and directed towards their bonded females.…”

miRNAome expression profiles in the gonads of adultMelopsittacus undulatus

“…In males, right-sided dominance of molecular neuronal activation was found in answer to mate calls in the CMM male ( Eda-Fujiwara et al, 2016 ), several studies found that vocal learning in adult budgerigars is sex-biased ( Striedter et al, 2003 ). These differences in learning have been well documented at various developmental stages in males and females as well ( Hoeschele & Bowling, 2016 ). Nevertheless, the biological functions of gonadal miRNAs in budgerigars are largely unknown and the sexual differential expression (DE) profile of gonadal miRNAs in budgerigars has not been reported.…”