Biology subjects

Wall, E. M.

Publications and source records attributed to Wall, E. M..

4 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

Emergence of social recognition in auditory and integrative circuits during pair bonding

Social relationships profoundly shape the perception of communication signals. In animals that form long-term social bonds, sensory cues such as vocalizations, scent, or physical appearance, and rewarding mating experiences can become associated with a bonded mate. While this natural process has hallmarks of some forms of associative learning, little is known about where or how these experiences shape neural circuits over the course of pair bonding. We used whole-brain BOLD fMRI in female songbirds to explore experience-dependent changes in neural activity in response to male songs. Pair bonding experiences drove changes in activation in response to the partners song within secondary auditory areas as well as two regulatory hubs that receive sensory input and connect to circuits that generate behavioral responses. In contrast, mere exposure to the vocal interactions of a neighboring pair did not result in changes in response to the neighbors song within the same areas, suggesting that pair bonding uniquely impacts auditory responses to familiar songs in select sensory and integrative circuits. Moreover, within the areas that showed increased activation for the partners song over the course of pair bonding, we observed diminished activation in response to the partners song after blocking D1 dopamine receptors, indicating a potential role for dopamine in the expression or maintenance of preference for the partners song. Eavesdropping females had changes in neural activation in response to the familiar song in a different suite of brain regions that were not affected by dopamine manipulation. Our data identify a potential circuit in which concurrent activation of sensory, reward, and regulatory hubs integrates multisensory information from social interactions and leads to the emergence of acoustic preferences and formation of long-lasting social bonds.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Pervasive patterns in the songs of passerine birds resemble human music universals and are linked with production and cognitive mechanisms

Music is a complex learned behavior that is ubiquitous among humans, and many musical patterns are shared across geography and cultures ("music universals"). Knowing whether these universals are specific to humans or shared with other animals is important to understand how production-related factors (motor biases and constraints) or cognitive factors (learning) contribute to the emergence of these acoustic patterns. Bird song is often described as an animal analogue of human music, and some studies of individual avian species highlight acoustic similarities between bird song and music. However, expansive and comparative approaches are necessary to identify universal patterns within bird song, reveal mechanisms associated with these patterns, and draw parallels to music universals. Here, we adopt such an approach and analyze the prevalence of acoustic patterns (sequences) across [~]300 species of passerines, spanning both oscines (songbirds; vocal learners) and their sister clade, suboscines (passerines that produce songs that are not learned), as well as within a global corpus of human vocal music. This approach allowed us to directly test hypotheses that phonation mechanisms or vocal learning shape the emergence of universal patterns. We first document acoustic patterns that were widely shared across passerines and similar to music universals (e.g., small pitch intervals), highlighting the role of shared vocal production mechanisms in these patterns. Consistent with a contribution of vocal learning, we observed patterns (e.g., alternation in durations) there were more similar between oscines and humans than between suboscines and humans. Interestingly, we also discovered patterns (e.g., pitch alternation) that were inconsistent with a contribution of vocal learning and were more similar between suboscines and humans than between oscines and humans. This research provides the broadest evidence of shared universals in vocal performance across birds and humans and highlights convergent mechanisms shaping communication patterns.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2023

Social experiences shape song preference learning independent of developmental exposure to song

Communication governs the formation and maintenance of social relationships. The interpretation of communication signals depends not only on the signals content, but also on a receivers individual experience. Experiences throughout life may interact to affect behavioral plasticity, such that a lack of developmental sensory exposure could constrain adult learning, while salient adult social experiences could remedy developmental deficits. We investigated how experiences impact the formation and direction of female auditory preferences in the zebra finch. Zebra finches form long-lasting pair bonds and females learn preferences for their mates vocalizations. We found that after two weeks of cohabitation with a male, females formed pair-bonds and learned to prefer their mates song regardless of whether they were reared with ("normally-reared") or without ("song-naive") developmental exposure to song. In contrast, females that heard but did not physically interact with a male did not prefer his song. Moreover, even following mating, song-naive females failed to show species-typical preferences for courtship song, hinting that mating is insufficient to ameliorate broader deficits in sensory processing that arise during development. Thus, courtship and mating interactions, but not acoustic-only interactions, strongly influence preference learning regardless of rearing experience, and may dynamically drive auditory plasticity for recognition and preference.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2019

Dopamine in the songbird auditory cortex shapes auditory preference

In vocal communication, vocal signals can provide listeners with information and also elicit motivated responses. Auditory cortical and mesolimbic reward circuits are often considered to have distinct roles in these processes, with auditory cortical circuits responsible for detecting and discriminating sounds and mesolimbic circuits ascribing salience and modulating preference for those sounds. Here, we investigated whether dopamine within auditory cortical circuits themselves can shape the incentive salience of a vocal signal. Using female zebra finches, who show natural preferences for vocal signals produced by males ( songs), we found that pairing passive song playback with pharmacological manipulations of dopamine in the secondary auditory cortex drives changes to song preferences. Plasticity of song preferences by dopamine lasted for at least one week and was not influenced by norepinephrine manipulations. These data suggest that dopamine acting directly in sensory processing areas can shape the incentive salience of communication signals.

neuroscience↗