Vocal communication is critical for many organisms to navigate their social and physical environments. In some avian and mammalian species, including humans, vocal communication systems partially depend on social learning and have the potential to change over short evolutionary timescales. However, in order to address the nature and pace of evolutionary changes in these vocal communication systems, we need to understand the functions of learned vocalizations, as well as how this form of social learning is constrained by development. 

The Smith-Vidaurre Lab addresses why flexible vocal communication is important for information encoding in different social environments, as well as how information encoding in learned vocalizations may be robust or sensitive to early-life experiences. They use a combination of computational and experimental approaches to address these overarching questions with acoustic and behavioral datasets in parrots and songbirds. 

In this seminar, Dr. Smith-Vidaurre will review recent findings from her research in ecology and evolution about the robustness of identity information encoding in learned parrot vocalizations. She will also present a new open-access tool for behavioral tracking, including how this tool can be deployed to track nest attendance activities throughout songbird development. To highlight the research that the lab will carry out in the near future, she will end with an overview of new projects slated to start over the next three years, including whether and how individuals modify vocal information during real-time social interactions and how vocal information encoding could be impacted by early social experiences.