@article{doolittle_overtone-based_2014,
	title = {Overtone-based pitch selection in hermit thrush song: {Unexpected} convergence with scale construction in human music},
	volume = {111},
	issn = {0027-8424},
	shorttitle = {Overtone-based pitch selection in hermit thrush song},
	url = {https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4246323/},
	doi = {10.1073/pnas.1406023111},
	abstract = {The song of the hermit thrush, a common North American songbird, is renowned for its
apparent musicality and has attracted the attention of musicians and ornithologists
for more than a century. Here we show that hermit thrush songs, like much human
music, use pitches that are mathematically related by simple integer ratios and
follow the harmonic series. Our findings add to a small but growing body of research
showing that a preference for small-integer ratio intervals is not unique to humans
and are thus particularly relevant to the ongoing nature/nurture debate about whether
musical predispositions such as the preference for consonant intervals are
biologically or culturally driven., Many human musical scales, including the diatonic major scale prevalent in Western
music, are built partially or entirely from intervals (ratios between adjacent
frequencies) corresponding to small-integer proportions drawn from the harmonic
series. Scientists have long debated the extent to which principles of scale
generation in human music are biologically or culturally determined. Data from animal
“song” may provide new insights into this discussion. Here, by
examining pitch relationships using both a simple linear regression model and a
Bayesian generative model, we show that most songs of the hermit thrush
(Catharus guttatus) favor simple frequency ratios derived from
the harmonic (or overtone) series. Furthermore, we show that this frequency selection
results not from physical constraints governing peripheral production mechanisms but
from active selection at a central level. These data provide the most rigorous
empirical evidence to date of a bird song that makes use of the same mathematical
principles that underlie Western and many non-Western musical scales, demonstrating
surprising convergence between human and animal “song cultures.”
Although there is no evidence that the songs of most bird species follow the overtone
series, our findings add to a small but growing body of research showing that a
preference for small-integer frequency ratios is not unique to humans. These findings
thus have important implications for current debates about the origins of human
musical systems and may call for a reevaluation of existing theories of musical
consonance based on specific human vocal characteristics.},
	number = {46},
	urldate = {2026-03-07},
	journal = {Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A},
	author = {Doolittle, Emily L. and Gingras, Bruno and Endres, Dominik M. and Fitch, W. Tecumseh},
	month = nov,
	year = {2014},
	pages = {16616--16621},
	file = {Full Text PDF:C\:\\Users\\duoyi\\Zotero\\storage\\UN28W4ZS\\Doolittle et al. - 2014 - Overtone-based pitch selection in hermit thrush song Unexpected convergence with scale construction.pdf:application/pdf},
}