Fig. 3: Singing exercise drives changes in vocal output.
From: Daily vocal exercise is necessary for peak performance singing in a songbird
a After seven days of singing prevention (green) b, muscle speed was significantly slower compared to singing adult males (Unpaired two-sided Welch’s t-test, p = 0.02409, NAdults = 11, NSingingPrevention = 8) and MIS was reduced, albeit not significantly (Unpaired two-sided Welch’s t-test, p = 0.07062, NAdults = 12, NSingingPrevention = 8). c Example of stereotyped song motif (individual BO198). Top to bottom: spectrogram, source level (dBrms re. 20µPa at 1 m) and Wiener entropy (dB). Fundamental frequency (fo) trace is overlaid on spectrogram. d Motif iterations pre (n = 284) and post (n = 201) singing prevention of same individual aligned to the onset of syllable three (downward arrow). Each row represents a single motif iteration color-coded for source level (top), fo (middle) and Wiener entropy (bottom). e Individual BO198 and f, group data show that motif source level (Paired two-sided t-test, p = 0.011, N = 10 independent animals) and duration (Paired two-sided t-test, p = 7.7*10-5, N = 10 independent animals) decreased significantly due to singing prevention. g fo traces (top) and mean fo distributions (bottom) per syllable of individual BO198 and h, all individuals show that singing prevention causes significant changes in fo, fo-range and Wiener entropy in 81% (21/26), 65% (17/26), and 76% (32/42) of all analysed syllables of 10 animals respectively. (Red: significant increase (p < 0.05), blue: significant decrease (p < 0.05), grey: no statistically significant change (p ≥ 0.05), unpaired two-sided t-test). Data are presented as mean values ± 1 S.D. * at p < 0.05, *** at p < 0.001, n.s. at p ≥ 0.05. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.
