Abstract
The songs of Bengalese finches (Lonchura striata var. domestica) have complex syntax and provide an opportunity to investigate how complex sequential behaviour emerges via the evolutionary process. In this study, we suggest that a simple mechanism, i.e. many-to-one mapping from internal states onto syllables, may underlie the emergence of apparent complex syllable sequences that have higher order history dependencies.We analysedthe songs ofBengalese finches and of their wild ancestor, the white-rumped munia (L. striata), whose songs are more stereotypical and simpler compared with those of Bengalese finches. The many-to-one mapping mechanism sufficiently accounted for the differences in the complexity of song syllable sequences of these two strains.
Original language | English |
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Article number | 20130842 |
Journal | Biology Letters |
Volume | 9 |
Issue number | 6 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 23 Dec 2013 |
Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Bengalese finch
- Many-to-one mapping
- Partially observable Markov model
- Song syntax
- White-rumped munia