Neighborhood-statistics reveal complex dynamics of song acquisition in the zebra finch

Abstract

Motor behaviors are continually shaped by a variety of processes such as environmental influences, development, and learning1,2. The resulting behavioral changes are commonly quantified based on hand-picked features3–10 (e.g. syllable pitch11) and assuming discrete classes of behaviors (e.g. distinct syllables)3–5,9,10,12–17. Such methods may generalize poorly across behaviors and species and are necessarily biased. Here we present an account of behavioral change based on nearest-neighbor statistics18–23 that avoids such biases and ap Show more