Reconstruction of vocal interactions in a group of small songbirds

Victor N Anisimov; Joshua A Herbst; Andrei N Abramchuk; Alexander V Latanov; Richard H R Hahnloser; Alexei L Vyssotski

doi:10.1038/nmeth.3114

Reconstruction of vocal interactions in a group of small songbirds

Nat Methods. 2014 Nov;11(11):1135-7. doi: 10.1038/nmeth.3114. Epub 2014 Sep 28.

Authors

Victor N Anisimov¹, Joshua A Herbst², Andrei N Abramchuk³, Alexander V Latanov¹, Richard H R Hahnloser⁴, Alexei L Vyssotski²

Affiliations

¹ Faculty of Biology, Moscow State University, Moscow, Russian Federation.
² Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich, Switzerland.
³ Echelon-Geolife, Moscow, Russian Federation.
⁴ 1] Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH, Zurich, Switzerland. [2] Neuroscience Center Zurich (ZNZ) Zurich, Switzerland.

PMID: 25262206
DOI: 10.1038/nmeth.3114

Abstract

The main obstacle for investigating vocal interactions in vertebrates is the difficulty of discriminating individual vocalizations of rapidly moving, sometimes simultaneously vocalizing individuals. We developed a method of recording and analyzing individual vocalizations in free-ranging animals using ultraminiature back-attached sound and acceleration recorders. Our method allows the separation of zebra finch vocalizations irrespective of background noise and the number of vocalizing animals nearby.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Animals
Female
Finches / physiology*
Male
Signal-To-Noise Ratio
Sound Spectrography / instrumentation
Sound Spectrography / methods*
Vocalization, Animal*