Accueil LECD

Two main topics for the research at the LECD entitled:

• Topic#1 Communication: from vocal to multimodal behaviour
• Topic#2 Developmental and cognitive bases of social life within material environments

Different research programs are presented starting with those belonging mainly to topic#1 and ending with those dealing more with aspects of topic#2.

ROBIN

This project received support in form of a temporal assignment of one member of the LECD (Nicole Geberzahn, coordinator) to the Acoustics communication teams, NEUROPSI-CNRS, university Paris Saclay by the CNRS (delegation period 2019-2023) and the University Paris Nanterre (CRCT period 2024).

Nicole Geberzahn, Laurent Nagle, Mathieu Amy, Julie Bosca (PhD student), Marie Huet (animal care taker).
Partners: NEUROPSI-CNRS, university Paris Saclay (Fanny Rybak, Chloris Maury, Thierry Aubin), Max Planck Institute for Biological Intelligence, Seewiesen, Germany (Manfred Gahr, Antje Bakker).

Singing in songbirds has long been considered a male trait. However, birdsong is also present in female songbirds, a topic widely neglected in research. Studying the song of female birds, in comparison to that of males, is becoming a necessity today. When birds sing, they face different types of constraints related to the process of vocal production or to the transmission of acoustic signals. For species living in urban areas, anthropogenic noise has a negative impact, particularly on long-distance communication. Birds use different strategies to counteract the acoustic masking caused by this noise. For instance, many species shift up the  minimum frequenies of their songs to avoid masking by urbain noise. So far, so study has investigated whether there are sex-specific differences in the strategies to adapt to the impact of anthropogenic noise. The European robin is a perfect model to study this question, as this species  frequently colonizes urban environments and both males and females sing. During the current contract (ongoing research as part of the PhD thesis of Julie Bosca supervised by Nicole Geberzahn and Mathieu Amy (Laurent Nagle until 2023), we will address the following questions: 1) do female robins develop the same strategies as males to counteract noise (i.e. do both sexes shift up minimum frequencies of their song)? 2) do adaptations of vocal behaviour to urban noise negatively influence the vocal performances in this species (i.e. do such adaptations influence how close to vocal production limits birds sing)? and, if so, 3) is vocal performance in urbain habitats equally compromised in both sexes?

REDSTART

Tudor Draganoiu

Age is known to influence territorial interactions, mate choice as well as reproductive success in birds. Song may be an indicator of age and several songbirds were shown to take the age of the opponent into account during their territorial responses. However, there is only limited evidence for age-related differences in song until now. Our field approach enabled us to dispose of a data set of longitudinal recordings suitable to test for age-related modifications in the songs of a common yet under-studied European songbird, the black redstart. We will mainly explore the evolution of different vocal performance parameters such as the trill rate, the vocal deviation or the consistency of the songs between the first and the second year of life. The black redstart is a species with a delayed plumage maturation, males reaching their definitve plumage only at the end of the first breeding season. Song analyses will enable to test if it also displays a vocal delayed maturation (an increase in one or several measures of vocal performance).

FEMCOURT

Courtship signals in female canaries
Lead : Mathieu Amy and we will take advantage of the recent recruitment of Lucie Rigaill who is a specialist of multimodal communication in primates.

We will continue our research on female signals in the context of sexual selection using canaries. We will particularly take into account the multimodality of communication. In songbirds, courtships often are reciprocal but researches have mainly focused on male signals and female
signals are overlooked. In response to male song, female canaries produce multiple signals : they combine a Copulation Solicitation Display (CSD) and a Copulation Solicitation Call (CSC). We aim to understand the production of female multiple signals by precisely describing the movements during CSDs, the acoustic parameters of the CSCs and their coordination. This first step will enable us to construct a female robot bird (in collaboration with the NIRVANA team, see below) in order to asses the effects of female multimodal signals on male courtship.

NIRVANA

Program funded by the ANR in 2023 (2024-2027).
Coordinator: Sébastien Derégnaucourt. Other members of the LECD involved in this program: Mathieu Amy, Juliette Lavender (research engineer hired in 2024), Nathan Perez (PhD student).
Partners: Laboratory ETIS-CNRS, University Paris Cergy (Alexandre Pitti, Sofiane Boucenna), NEUROPSI-CNRS, university Paris Saclay (Nicolas Giret, Catherine del Negro), LS2N-CNRS Nantes (Vincent Lostanlen).

There is mounting evidence that variability plays an important role in the outcome of sensorimotor learning: in some cases, increased variability during learning is eventually associated with better performance. With this project, we propose to investigate at the LECD 1) the effects of variability on developmental vocal learning using birdsong as a biological model and 2) to use birdsong vocal trajectories to build computational models. Taking advantage of recent methodological advances including the successful use of a robot bird as a song tutor, we will track the song development of young zebra finches (Taeniopygia
guttata) and canaries (Serinus canaria) exposed to different song models that exhibit significant variability. Then, these results will help building new developmental algorithms for neurorobotics including direct model learning and sensorimotor skill acquisition. In particular, the song learning process will be  reproduced in a robot bird that will learn the correspondence between the sound emitted by a live bird and its own motor primitives. This interdisciplinary project combines neuroethology, neurorobotics and signal analysis and synthesis. As part of this research program, we will also explore whether female  canaries who sing sometimes spontaneously but that can also be induced to sing with a testosterone implant, are able to imitate sounds. We will take advantage of a pilot experiment performed during the current contract. We trained young canaries to learn musical melodies inspired by the methods used in  the 18th and 19th centuries. At the behavioural level, this experiment will allow us to explore the learning abilities of artificial stimuli of this species, especially in females for whom, until now, vocal learning abilities have been little explored.

ORIGAMI

ORIGins of Action/perception Mechanisms In the language domain: from the womb to infancy
Irene Lorenzini, Maya Gratier

In healthy adults, speech processing entails the joint activation of brain areas associated with speech perception and production, testifying of a strict Action/Perception (A/P) association in language processing. However, little is known about the infancy of A/P loops in the language domain. Thus, current models of language acquisition bypass a perceptual mechanism that is part of the human perceptual endowment in its final state. The aim of this project is to better understand: the ontogenetic origins of A/P loops; their functional contribution to language development. This program will be led by Irene Lorenzini and in collaboration with the maternity service of the Max Fourestier Hospital, Nanterre.

SUNNY

Sounding Sensation in Infancy.
Maya Gratier and Rana Esseily.
Partners: University of Geneva (Didier Grandjean), IRCAM (Frédéric Bevilacqua), University of Toulouse (Bahia Guellai).

The goal of this project is to study the perception of cross-sensory correspondences based on sound, mouvement and touch in young infants. Recent studies have shown remarquable cross-sensory perception abilities in infants starting from birth. These abilities may enable infants to associate feeling states they experience from within their own body through interoception with the infant-directed behaviours (speech, social touch or rhythmic mouvements) of their social partners. This project will explore the ways in which multimodal infant-directed communication is attuned to infants’ perceptual abilities in  relation to the development of interoception. Funding for this project is pending evaluation by the Swiss Science Foundation.

MUSICAL BEINGS

Program funded by the ANR.
Coordinator: Rana Esseily. Contributors : Carla Aimé (postdoc), Dalila Bovet, Océane Cossu-Doye (PhD student), Maya Gratier.
Partners: Laboratory Ethos-CNRS, Rennes (Isabelle George, Cécilia Houdelier, Sophie Lumineau), laboratory LNCA-CNRS, University of Strasbourg: (Hélène Meunier), LPNC-CNRS, University of Grenoble (Louise Goupil).

The aim of this program (web site Musical Beings) is to better understand the evolutionary roots of musicality (i.e. abilities related to the perception, appreciation and production of music) and its effects on social behaviour by studying birds. Some authors suggest that musicality appeared during evolution to strengthen social bonds and  group cohesion (“social bond hypothesis”). Several studies have revealed that joint musical activities promote prosociality in children. The relationship between music and social behaviour is little explored in other species. However, as a correlate of the "social bond hypothesis", musicality may also have  emerged in other animal taxa as a means of enhancing social bonds, particularly in social species where group cohesion is essential for survival. During the current contract, we observed that listening to music promotes positive social interactions in both preschool children and cockatiels. Thus, musicality may have emerged at least twice during evolution, in humans and in some birds, with similar adaptive functions. The hypothesis in the literature is that musicality is linked to vocal learning abilities. In the current project, we compare the effect of music on prosocial behaviour in species of birds with and without vocal learning abilities (quails vs. cockatiels, canaries and zebra finches) and we also compare these birds with nonhuman primates (gibbons, marmosets, tamarins) and human children. We investigate the conditions in which music promotes positive social interactions (listening together or separately, passive  listening or production), as well as the possible role of interpersonal synchronization as an underlying mechanism to mediate the proximal relationship between music and social interactions.

CHRONOUS

Isochronous rhythms: influence on cognitive and social skills.
Anne Bobin-Bègue

This research program is developed thanks to different collaborations: 1) collaboration on Siham Bouziane's thesis (start 09/2023, supervised by Adrien Meguerditchian and Jennifer Coull, Université Aix-Marseille): temporal prediction in infants and non-human primates: implications for the evolution and ontogeny of rhythm processing; 2) Alexcia Raymand's thesis co-supervision project: benefits of mobilising spontaneous isochronous rhythms on investment in cognitive and social tasks in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (HDR supervision Marie-Hélène Plumet, Université Paris cité - IRESP funding); 3) Project ROCK: vestibular isochronal rhythms influence our temporal interactions with the physical and social environment and our attentional mobilisation. During human development, but also in apes, youngsters are carried and cradled. The idea is to assess the effects of these mothering practices on developmental markers such as pointing, grasping and laterality, but also on engagement in social interactions and more complex skills such as curiosity, using developmental, comparative and clinical approaches.

EVOCAEP

Evolution of interactions between cognitive abilities and emotions in primates.
Dalila Bovet, Eugénie Mortessagne (PhD student).
Partner: MNHN (Emmanuelle Pouydebat, Fabien Pifféri).

In humans, most cognitive processes are affected by emotional state. The links between emotions and cognition are much less known in nonhuman primates and studies on the relation between emotion and cognition in primates are carried out on too few species. For this project, we will work on 5 species representative of primates’ phylogeny: mouse lemurs, capuchins, Guinea baboons, chimpanzees and humans. To evaluate the direct link between emotional state and cognitive performance, learning and memory tests with cues of various emotional value will be conducted. We will also develop a device based on AI (Artificial Intelligence) to quantify the emotions of nonhuman primates. Thus, the goal of this PhD project is to study the evolution of interactions between cognitive abilities and emotions in primates, in order to highlight the human origins of these interactions and to put forward potential common  mechanisms with other primates.

EMOLEARN

Program funded by the ANR.
Coordinator: Lauriane Rat-Fischer. Members of the LECD involved in this program: Margot Poirier (PhD student), Romain di Stasi (PhD student), Rana Esseily.

Humor is present in all cultures and in many social contexts. Few studies, however, have been carried out on babies who nevertheless develop a sense of humor very early on. Humor has two main functions explaining why it appears so early in development: strengthening social relationships and emotional development (“laughing for love”), and strengthening individuals' learning and cognitive development (“laughing to learn”). Numerous studies have demonstrated a positive effect of humor on learning in adults and school-age children and in human babies by two researchers of our team. We started to investigate whether it is humor in itself which induces this effect on learning, or whether one or more of the components associated with humor play a particular role, such as laughter, surprise, positive emotions, or even the increase in affiliation induced by humor (PhD thesis of Margot Poirier & Romain di Stasi co-supervised by Lauriane Rat-Fischer & Rana Esseily).

Web site Emolearn

TWINCOOP

Program funded by the university of Sao Paolo.
Members of the LECD involved: Timon Lebaron-Kherif (cotutelle University of Sao Paolo and University Paris Nanterre) and Rana Esseily (co-supervisor).
Partner : Emma Otta, University of Sao Paolo, co-supervisor.

The aim of this project is to study cooperation in twin children taking into account zygosity, age, gender and culture. It is a participative research in the sense that parents film their twins’ doing a drawing activity together at home and send the movie to the research team for analysis. Parents also fill a questionnaire on twin interaction and temperament.

LEAR

Learning and Exploring in Babies and Robots.
Lauriane Rat-Fischer
Partner: Pierre-Yves Oudeyer (Laboratoire Flowers, INRIA Bordeaux) and Alex Kacelnik (Department of Biology, University of Oxford).

Children are curious and active learners. They spontaneously play, driven by an intrinsic motivation to explore their environment. The aim of this project is to explore how children autonomously select their own goals and actions depending on task difficulty, which may in turn influence their performance at the  chosen task. We will then compare these results with those from artificial agents with intrinsic motivations, that explore through self-generating and experimenting autonomous goals (e.g. Forestier et al. 2022).