Effects of continuous noise on avian hearing and vocal development

Abstract

Continuous loud noise was used to mask auditory feedback from vocal behavior of male canaries. Single unit techniques demonstrate partial deafness after noise exposure. Longer exposure caused greater deficits, with losses of high-frequency sensitivity. Males raised in noise to 40 days of age, then deafened surgically, thus totally deprived of auditory feedback from vocalization, developed significantly fewer song syllables than birds similarly raised but left intact, to mature in quiet sound-insulated chambers. Males left longer in noise, to sexual maturity at 200 days of age, sang at first like surgically deafened birds, but then increased their song syllable repertoire after noise termination. Thus, in spite of the considerable deafness resulting from noise exposure, the deficit in syllable repertoire was corrected, presumably as a result of restoration of the birds' ability to hear their own song.