de Witasse-Thezy, A. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2024

Categorical and semantic perception of the meaning of call-types in zebra finches

Vocal communication in social animals involves the production and perception of various calls that ethologists categorize into call-types, based on their acoustical structure and the behavioral context of production. Whether animals perceive these categories and associate distinct meanings to them remains unknown. The zebra finch, a gregarious songbird, uses approximately 11 call-types to communicate hunger, danger, social conflict, and establish social contact and bonding. Using auditory discrimination tasks, we show that the birds discriminate and categorize all the call-types in their vocal repertoire. In addition, systematic errors were more frequent between call-types used in similar behavioral contexts than could be expected from their acoustic similarity. Thus, zebra finches organize their calls into categories and create a mental representation of the meaning of these sounds.

animal behavior and cognition↗

bioRxiv2024

A cooperatively breeding mouse shows flexible use of its vocal repertoire according to social context

Mice exchange information using chemical, visual and acoustic signals. Long ignored, mouse ultrasonic communication is now considered to be an important aspect of their social life, transferring information such as individual identity or stress levels. However, whether and how mice modulate their acoustic communications is largely unknown. Here we show that a wild mouse species with a complex social system controls its vocal production both qualitatively and quantitatively, depending on social context. We found that the African striped mouse Rhabdomys pumilio, a cooperatively breeding species, has a vocal repertoire consisting of seven call types, which it uses differently depending on whether the individuals encounter another mouse that is familiar, unfamiliar, of the same or different sex. Familiar individuals, whether of the same or different sex, vocalize more than two unfamiliar same-sex individuals. The greatest diversity of vocalisations is recorded when a female and a male first encounter, suggesting that certain calls are reserved for courtship. Our results highlight that familiar mice alternate their vocalisations (turn-taking) while unfamiliar individuals tend to overlap one another. These observations suggest that African striped mice control the production and temporal dynamics of their vocalisations, addressing targeted information to specific receivers via the acoustic channel.

animal behavior and cognition↗