Researchers at Leiden University and the University of Amsterdam have discovered that humans and songbirds recognise complex sounds differently. Zhi-Yuan Ning (formerly at IBL), Carel ten Cate (IBL) and their colleagues investigated this using a listening task in which humans and zebra finches were presented with the same artificial sounds.
Humans primarily focused on pitch, whereas zebra finches combined pitch with changes in the spectral structure of sounds, such as shifting formant patterns.
According to Ning, the difference lies not only in which acoustic features the two species can perceive, but also, crucially, in how they combine this information. The findings show that species-specific auditory preferences and experience jointly determine how we recognise complex sounds. The results could provide new insights into the perception of music and speech.
Read the full press release on the University of Amsterdam website.
