Acoustic Coding Strategies Through the Lens of the Mathematical Theory of Communication

The Mathematical Theory of Communication predicts how the amount of information of a signal is transmitted from an emitter to a receiver after propagation through the environment. This theory can be applied to explain the principles of animal communication and can be, in the acoustic domain, a strong framework to explore crucial questions on communication strategies such as which code for which environment, which code for which social life, how the information is decoded at the receiver’s level, how physiological mechanisms constrain the information coding. Such an approach encompasses all aspects of the acoustic communication process, including its dynamic dimensions.