Role of auditory feedback in canary song development

Abstract

As in other songbirds, early deafening had drastic effects on the song of the roller canary, a cardueline finch, resulting in a song that was much simpler and more variable than the normal. The repertoire of the syllable types, of which the song is made, was reduced from 30 to a mean of 5.0. Loud white noise was successfully used as a reversible method of cutting off auditory feedback from vocal behavior. Although suffering permanent elevation of hearing thresholds, birds reared in noise to 200 days, singing at first like deaf birds, subsequently increased their syllable repertoires significantly. Birds reared in noise to weaning at 40 days, again partly deaf, achieved a normal repertoire size when stimulated with a singing adult. Without such stimulation the repertoire was significantly reduced, showing that canary song is not fully innate, as had been thought. Although abnormal, the song of deaf canaries retained more species-specific features than did the song of emberizine sparrows when the songs developed without auditory feedback. The results are interpreted in terms of a sensory template theory.