Hormone-induced sexual differentiation of brain and behavior in zebra finches

The male zebra finch sings, whereas the female does not. This behavioral dimorphism is correlated with the presence of morphological sex differences within the neural substrate that mediates this behavior, the song system. When a female chick is exposed to 17beta-estradiol her song system is subsequently masculinized. Either testosterone or 5alpha-dihydrotestosterone may then induce such a female to sing when an adult.     

Dynamics of the vocal imitation process: how a zebra finch learns its song

Song imitation in birds provides good material for studying the basic biology of vocal learning. Techniques were developed for inducing the rapid onset of song imitation in young zebra finches and for tracking trajectories of vocal change over a 7-week period until a match to a model song was achieved. Exposure to a model song induced the prompt generation of repeated structured sounds (prototypes) followed by a slow transition from repetitive to serial delivery of syllables. Tracking this transition revealed two phenomena: (i) Imitations of dissimilar sounds can emerge from successive renditions of the same prototype, and (ii) developmental trajectories for some sounds followed paths of increasing acoustic mismatch until an abrupt correction occurred by period doubling. These dynamics are likely to reflect underlying neural and articulatory constraints on the production and imitation of sounds.     

牡丹江城市山雀冬季活动区研究

通过听鸣声、观形影、定位观察、拍照及录像等手段对牡丹江城市山雀的冬季活动进行了研究,明确了该市城市化水平不同的各区域中山雀的数量分布现状及影响山雀分布的栖息地因子,确定了山雀的活动区.     

A test for responsiveness to song structure and programming in female sparrows

Female song sparrows, primed with implants of estradiol, gave the solicitation display for copulation in response to acoustic stimulation with song. This technique demonstrated that female song sparrows respond more strongly to conspecific song than to alien songs, that they discriminate on the basis of both overall temporal pattern and syllabic structure, that they respond more to several song types than to repetitions of one song, and that they are most responsive to several song types if the songs are organized in bouts of a single type, as they are normally delivered by a male song sparrow. These results demonstrate a substantial correspondence between the structure and programming of the singing behavior of male birds and female responsiveness to song.     

Genetic control of song specificity in crickets

The calling song of male field crickets is composed of stereotyped rhythmic pulse intervals, which are predictable expressions of genotype. Females identify conspecific males by their song. Two species of crickets were found to exhibit species-specific song preference, and hybrids between them preferred hybrid calls over either parental call. These results imply genetic control of song reception as well as transmission.     

Altered perception of species-specific song by female birds after lesions of a forebrain nucleus

Female birds that do not normally sing possess brain nuclei associated with song production in males. To determine whether one song nucleus, the caudal nucleus of the ventral hyperstriatum (HVc), acts in conspecific song perception, courtship responses of female canaries to canary and white-crowned sparrow songs were compared before and after HVc lesions. Bilateral lesions of a portion of the HVc resulted in copulation solicitations to heterospecific song as well as conspecific song. Control females continued to respond only to conspecific song. This suggests that the HVc is critical for conspecific song perception in females. Because female canaries do not normally sing, neurons in female HVc must develop response selectivity by a mechanism different from that proposed for male birds in the motor theory of song perception.     

Temporal pattern as a cue for species-specific calling song recognition in crickets

Female crickets can recognize conspecific calling song from its temporal pattern alone. In Teleogryllus oceanicus, the song pattern consists of three classes of interpulse intervals arranged in a stereotyped sequence. Females recognize a model song in which the sequential order of intervals is random. This argues against the hypothesis that recognition results from matching auditory input to an internal template of the song.     

声乐教学中古诗词艺术歌曲特色探究

本文以探究古诗词艺术歌曲特色为视角,从声乐教学角度出发,通过阐述古诗词艺术歌 曲的演唱技巧、声乐教学中古诗词艺术歌曲的意境把握以及声乐教学中古诗词艺术歌曲的美学 价值,进一步明确在声乐教学中应该如何指导学生来演唱此类作品,如何让学生准确的把握古诗 词艺术歌曲的演唱特色。强调在声乐教学中,学习古诗词艺术歌曲不仅要求学生有着一定的声 乐技巧,更要求学生拥有深厚的文化素养,真正切实的唱出古诗词艺术歌曲的魂,有较高的参考 价值和社会意义。     

蟪蛄的发音器构造及鸣声分析

对蟪蛄Ｐｌａｔｙｐｌｅｕｒａｋａｅｍｐｆｅｒｉ（Ｆａｂｒ．）的自然鸣声、一般形态及发音器构造详细比较分析的结果表明：蟪蛄的鸣声与其发育器构造相统一，即：主发音器官鼓膜决定了声脉冲的特性，而辅发音器官背瓣、腹瓣、褶膜、腹室等又具有改善波形和调谐作用。蟪蛄的鸣声是由大部分高频成份和少量低频成份组成的复合声；鸣叫节律明显而有规律，变调过程在波形上可明显分为３部分，且这３部分交替进行，构成其完整的鸣叫过程。单鸣声和求偶交配声更具种的专一性，受内外界因素影响较小．可作为鸣声分类较理想的鸣叫类型。     

Hawaiian courtship songs: evolutionary innovation in communication signals of Drosophila

In Hawaii, flies of the genus Drosophila have undergone spectacular adaptive radiation, resulting in the evolution of more than 500 species of Drosophila that are found nowhere else on earth. This taxonomic uniqueness is reflected in behavior and morphology. Hawaiian Drosophila sing songs, as do continental Drosophila; however, the Hawaiian songs have diverged strongly in form and mechanism of production. The click-song of D. fasciculisetae's (Maui) has a carrier frequency an order of magnitude higher than those reported in familiar continental species, such as D. melanogaster (170 hertz). Drosophila fasciculisetae's song resembles a cicada's more than a fly's song. The song of D. cyrtoloma (Maui) has a complex pulse rhythm more typical of crickets than flies. The pulse song of D. silvestris (Hawaii) closely resembles that of D. melanogaster in both pulse rhythm and carrier frequency, but D. melanogaster sings by vibrating its wings, whereas D. silvestris sings through abdominal vibrations. These mechanisms are radical departures from the continental wing song mechanism and are further examples of the remarkable behavioral innovation that has occurred in the Drosophila of Hawaii during their evolutionary transit through these islands.     

Selective vocal learning in a sparrow

Male swamp sparrows learn their songs; they fail to learn songs of the sympatric song sparrow. Syllables from tape recordings of both species of sparrow were spliced into an array of swamp sparrow-like and song sparrow-like temporal patterns. Swamp sparrows learned only those songs made of swamp sparrow syllables. They did so irrespective of whether the temporal pattern was swamp sparrow-like or song sparrow-like. Selectivity was retained by birds reared in total isolation from adult conspecific sounds.     

Songs of humpback whales

1) Humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) produce a series of beautiful and varied sounds for a period of 7 to 30 minutes and then repeat the same series with considerable precision. We call such a performance "singing" and each repeated series of sounds a "song." 2) All prolonged sound patterns (recorded so far) of this species are in song form, and each individual adheres to its own song type. 3) There seem to be several song types around which whales construct their songs, but individual variations are pronounced (there is only a very rough species-specific song pattern). 4) Songs are repeated without any obvious pause between them; thus song sessions may continue for several hours. 5) The sequence of themes in successive songs by the same individual is the same. Although the number of phrases per theme varies, no theme is ever completely omitted in our sample. 6) Loud sounds in the ocean, for example dynamite blasts, do not seem to affect the whale's songs. 7) The sex of the performer of any of the songs we have studied is unknown. 8) The function of the songs is unknown.     

Reproductive development in a female songbird: differential stimulation by quality of male song

Female canaries exposed to playback of large repertoires of male songs built nests faster and laid more eggs than did those females exposed to smaller song repertoires: females are attentive to attributes of male song, and their choices have played a role in the evolution of oscine singing behaviors.     

Freedom and rules: the acquisition and reprogramming of a bird's learned song

Canary song is hierarchically structured: Short stereotyped syllables are repeated to form phrases, which in turn are arranged to form songs. This structure occurs even in the songs of young isolates, which suggests that innate rules govern canary song development. However, juveniles that had never heard normal song imitated abnormal synthetic songs with great accuracy, even when the tutor songs lacked phrasing. As the birds matured, imitated songs were reprogrammed to form typical canary phrasing. Thus, imitation and innate song constraints are separate processes that can be segregated in time: freedom in youth, rules in adulthood.     

歌曲翻译之选择——兼论翻唱歌曲的流行对歌曲翻译的冲击

歌曲是文字和音乐相结合的综合艺术,其翻译不同于其他文体的翻译。当前翻唱歌曲的流行表明,传统翻译观的"信"或"忠实"已经受到挑战,歌曲的传播性和商业化会影响到译者的翻译选择。文章就歌词大意和具备可唱性的歌词译配两种主要类型及其优劣势进行了详细讨论,并结合南非世界杯宣传歌曲Wavin Flag的中文版《旗开得胜》,探讨了歌曲翻唱现象,指出针对依靠媒介载体传播、面向市场的歌曲文本不仅要考虑"忠实"的翻译观,还需满足歌曲翻译在特定场合的不同需求。     

Interspecific genetic control of courtship song production and reception in Drosophila

The genetic control of courtship song differences between Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila simulans males was investigated by producing hybrids from reciprocal crosses. The song rhythm difference between the parental species appears to be due to sex-linked genes, whereas the basic interpulse-interval difference is autosomally inherited. Hybrid females show selective preferences for artificially generated songs carrying intermediate "hybrid" characteristics.     

基于MIDI技术的歌声自动伴奏

提出了歌声自动伴奏的方法,介绍了歌声向乐器转化的方法和MIDI技术,阐述了歌声乐器的自动伴奏原理,给出了基于MIDI技术的歌声自动伴奏方法。     

The neural basis of loss aversion in decision-making under risk

People typically exhibit greater sensitivity to losses than to equivalent gains when making decisions. We investigated neural correlates of loss aversion while individuals decided whether to accept or reject gambles that offered a 50/50 chance of gaining or losing money. A broad set of areas (including midbrain dopaminergic regions and their targets) showed increasing activity as potential gains increased. Potential losses were represented by decreasing activity in several of these same gain-sensitive areas. Finally, individual differences in behavioral loss aversion were predicted by a measure of neural loss aversion in several regions, including the ventral striatum and prefrontal cortex.     

沈璟戏剧中的重句现象及艺术效果

沈璟是一个谙熟登场的剧作家,追求剧本演出效果是他的曲学理念。为了达到更好的演出效果,他经常突破传统戏剧的做法,甚至破坏他亲手制订的曲律,重句现象就是一个很好的例证。     

How low can you go? Physical production mechanism of elephant infrasonic vocalizations

Elephants can communicate using sounds below the range of human hearing ("infrasounds" below 20 hertz). It is commonly speculated that these vocalizations are produced in the larynx, either by neurally controlled muscle twitching (as in cat purring) or by flow-induced self-sustained vibrations of the vocal folds (as in human speech and song). We used direct high-speed video observations of an excised elephant larynx to demonstrate flow-induced self-sustained vocal fold vibration in the absence of any neural signals, thus excluding the need for any "purring" mechanism. The observed physical principles of voice production apply to a wide variety of mammals, extending across a remarkably large range of fundamental frequencies and body sizes, spanning more than five orders of magnitude.