Current biology : CB
-
Current biology : CB · Mar 2017
Frogs Exploit Statistical Regularities in Noisy Acoustic Scenes to Solve Cocktail-Party-like Problems.
Noise is a ubiquitous source of errors in all forms of communication [1]. Noise-induced errors in speech communication, for example, make it difficult for humans to converse in noisy social settings, a challenge aptly named the "cocktail party problem" [2]. Many nonhuman animals also communicate acoustically in noisy social groups and thus face biologically analogous problems [3]. ⋯ In four psychophysical experiments, we investigated whether females exploit comodulation in background noise to mitigate noise-induced errors in evolutionarily critical mate-choice decisions. Subjects experienced fewer errors in recognizing conspecific calls and in selecting the calls of high-quality mates in the presence of simulated chorus noise that was comodulated. These data show unequivocally, and for the first time, that exploiting statistical regularities present in noisy acoustic scenes is an important biological strategy for solving cocktail-party-like problems in nonhuman animal communication.