Evolution of cultural communication systems: the coevolution of cultural signals and genes encoding learning preferences

@article{Lachlan2003EvolutionOC,
  title={Evolution of cultural communication systems: the coevolution of cultural signals and genes encoding learning preferences},
  author={Robert F. Lachlan and Marcus W. Feldman},
  journal={Journal of Evolutionary Biology},
  year={2003},
  volume={16}
}
In several communication systems that rely on social learning, such as bird song, and possibly human language, the range of signals that can be learned is limited by perceptual biases – predispositions – that are presumably based on genes. In this paper, we examine the coevolution of such genes with the culturally transmitted communication traits themselves, using deterministic population genetic models. We argue that examining how restrictive genetic predispositions are is a useful way of… 
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52 Citations
Highly Influential Citations
2
Background Citations
25
Methods Citations
4
Results Citations
2

52 Citations

The reach of gene–culture coevolution in animals
TLDR
The evidence suggests strongly that animal culture plays an important evolutionary role, and the growing body of evidence that culture is also a major driver of both neutral and adaptive genetic evolution in non-human animals is reviewed.
Cultural niche construction of repertoire size and learning strategies in songbirds
TLDR
It is shown, using a review of the birdsong literature and mathematical modeling, that learning mode (open-ended or closed-ended learning) is correlated with the size of birdsong repertoires and underpinning this correlation may be a form of cultural niche construction.
SONG LEARNING ACCELERATES ALLOPATRIC SPECIATION
TLDR
A population-genetic model of allopatric divergence is constructed that explores the evolution of genes that underlie learning preferences (predispositions to learn some songs over others) and shows that under nearly all conditions examined, song divergence occurs more readily in the learning model than in the nonlearning model.
Sympatry affects the evolution of genetic versus cultural determination of song
TLDR
It is found that when the probability of learning is fixed, local dialects can generally be maintained even when a substantial majority of males produce learned songs, and song differentiation will, however, be lost if song learning itself can evolve.
Classes of communication and the conditions for their evolution.
Selection , domestication , and the emergence of learned communication systems
TLDR
A computational model of the evolutionary history of the Bengalese finch is presented which demonstrates how an increase in song complexity and increased influence from early learning could evolve spontaneously as a result of domestication.
The Role of the Learner in the Cultural Evolution of Vocalizations
TLDR
It is proposed that the evolutionary dynamics of learning preferences and cultural biases can depend on the existing variation of learned behaviors, and that this interaction could be important to understanding the origin and evolution of cultural systems such as language and birdsong.
Modelling the transition to complex, culturally transmitted communication
TLDR
This thesis presents a series of related formal models that investigate several issues in the evolution of complex vocal signalling and cultural transmission in songbirds and other species, and develops a computational model that demonstrates that domestication, or a similar shift in the fitness landscape, may play a surprising role in the development of signal complexity and increased vocal plasticity.
The Progressive Loss of Syntactical Structure in Bird Song along an Island Colonization Chain
Learning and Cultural Transmission in Chaffinch Song
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