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Prenatal environment affects embryonic response to song.
Diane Colombelli-Négrel1, Sonia Kleindorfer2
1School of Biological Sciences, Flinders University, GPO Box 2100, Adelaide 5001, Australia.
Biology Letters
|August 18, 2017
Summary
Prenatal exposure to parental song rate influences superb fairy-wren embryo responses to songs. Embryos from acoustically active families showed stronger physiological reactions to potential tutors before hatching.
Area of Science:
- Animal Behavior
- Developmental Biology
- Bioacoustics
Background:
- Early environmental enrichment is known to enhance postnatal cognitive development in various species.
- Superb fairy-wrens (Malurus cyaneus) exhibit prenatal discrimination of maternal calls and in ovo call learning, making them a unique model for studying prenatal acoustic influences.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the impact of the prenatal acoustic environment, specifically parental song rate, on prenatal attention in superb fairy-wren embryos.
- To determine if embryos exhibit differential physiological responses to songs based on parental song activity and tutor characteristics.
Main Methods:
- Broadcasted songs to superb fairy-wren embryos during the incubation phase.
- Measured embryonic heart rate responses to assess physiological reactions to auditory stimuli.
- Correlated heart rate responses with parental song rate and song tutor identity (sex, familiarity).
Main Results:
- Embryos from families with a high parental song rate exhibited the strongest responses to broadcasted songs.
- Embryos showed a heightened response to male songs, regardless of the singer's familiarity.
- Embryonic response strength was positively associated with the father's song rate during incubation.
Conclusions:
- This study provides the first evidence of a prenatal physiological response to specific songs in bird eggs.
- The prenatal acoustic environment, particularly parental song rate, influences embryonic auditory perception and responsiveness.
- These findings suggest that prenatal acoustic experiences may prime young birds for later song learning before the sensitive period.
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