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In all ages and countries, music and dance have constituted a central part in human culture and communication. Recently, vocal-learning animals such as parrots and elephants have been found to share rhythmic ability with humans. Thus, we investigated the rhythmic synchronization of budgerigars, a vocal-mimicking parrot species, under controlled conditions and a systematically designed experimental paradigm as a first step in understanding the evolution of musical entrainment. We trained eight budgerigars to perform isochronous tapping tasks in which they pecked a key to the rhythm of audio-visual metronome-like stimuli. The budgerigars showed evidence of entrainment to external stimuli over a wide range of tempos. They seemed to be inherently inclined to tap at fast tempos, which have a similar time scale to the rhythm of budgerigars' natural vocalizations. We suggest that vocal learning might have contributed to their performance, which resembled that of humans.
Pubmed ID: 22355637
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A multi-channel triggering hard-disk recording system designed specifically for bio-acoustics, although it can be used for other audio signals. This software uses real-time spectrographic and spectrum display and posesses a customizable metadata input tool for embedding user-defined data directly into the resulting .wav files. The maximum sampling rate for real-time display and streaming to disk depends on the type of acquisition board and computer performance. These embedded records can later be accessed from SASLab Pro and integrated into another metadata base.
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