Female zebra finches require early song exposure to prefer high-quality song as adults

Lauay, Christine; Gerlach, Nicole; Adkins‐Regan, Elizabeth; DeVoogd, Timothy J.

doi:10.1016/j.anbehav.2003.12.025

Cited by 92 publications

(87 citation statements)

References 28 publications

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“…These preferences may concern the presence of certain general features of songs. For example, naive and normally reared female zebra finches prefer conspecific song [9,40], which might help to maintain the species specificity of male songs. On the other hand, females prefer tutored song (normal quality) to untutored song (abnormal quality) [40] and larger element repertoires over smaller ones [21].…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, naive and normally reared female zebra finches prefer conspecific song [9,40], which might help to maintain the species specificity of male songs. On the other hand, females prefer tutored song (normal quality) to untutored song (abnormal quality) [40] and larger element repertoires over smaller ones [21]. This latter preference may drive the use of additional uncommon song elements, and thus male song plasticity, since larger element repertoires are more likely to include more uncommon elements in addition to the common ones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The interplay of within-species perceptual predispositions and experience during song ontogeny in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

et al. 2014

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Vocal acquisition in songbirds and humans shows many similarities, one of which is that both involve a combination of experience and perceptual predispositions. Among languages some speech sounds are shared, while others are not. This could reflect a predisposition in young infants for learning some speech sounds over others, which combines with exposure-based learning. Similarly, in songbirds, some sounds are common across populations, while others are more specific to populations or individuals. We examine whether this is also due to perceptual preferences for certain within-species element types in naive juvenile male birds, and how such preferences interact with exposure to guide subsequent song learning. We show that young zebra finches lacking previous song exposure perceptually prefer songs with more common zebra finch song element types over songs with less common elements. Next, we demonstrate that after subsequent tutoring, birds prefer tutor songs regardless of whether these contain more common or less common elements. In adulthood, birds tutored with more common elements showed a higher song similarity to their tutor song, indicating that the early bias influenced song learning. Our findings help to understand the maintenance of similarities and the presence of differences among birds' songs, their dialects and human languages.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The interplay of within-species perceptual predispositions and experience during song ontogeny in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

et al. 2014

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“…Adult female zebra finches choose to spend time near the song they had heard from their father or their tutor rather than near the song of an unfamiliar male [Miller, 1979a;Clayton, 1988;Clayton and Pröve, 1989;Collins et al, 1994;Riebel, 2000;Lauay et al, 2004], even if cross-fostered (and tutored) by birds from another related species [Clayton, 1990]. Female zebra finches also prefer the song of their mate to that of other males [Miller, 1979b], as do song sparrows (Melospiza melodia), which prefer the songs of neighbors over the songs of strangers as well [O'Loghlen and Beecher, 1999].…”

Section: Behavioral Correlates Of Song Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Adult female zebra finches that had been reared normally prefer normal male song to the song produced by males reared in isolation. However, females reared in a complex social and auditory environment (with sibs and mothers) but without hearing normal male song are equally likely to select either sort of song [Lauay et al, 2002[Lauay et al, , 2004. It is not yet known whether females have an early sensitive phase during which song learning is enhanced as it is in males of many species.…”

Section: Behavioral Correlates Of Song Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Constraints on the Complexity of Avian Song

DeVoogd

2004

Brain Behav Evol

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Why do birds sing? In many species, because the song attracts or retains a mate. Why do females pay attention? This paper reviews evidence that females may do so because male song can be an honest indicator of attributes of a male’s brain that could contribute to his fitness or that of his young. Male songbirds learn and produce their songs using a set of brain regions collectively known as the song system. The learning has distinct auditory and motor components, and current data suggest that the neural changes that encode these forms of learning primarily occur in different subdivisions of the song system. There are positive correlations between song complexity and the volume of motor song system nucleus HVC, both between and within species. The correlations appear to arise because individual differences in volume lead to differences in capacity for learning. The differences in HVC volume are correlated with differences in the volumes of other song system components and with the volume of the forebrain. They are heritable. Thus, a complex song can be a signal to a female of immediate fitness (the male has a larger brain) and ultimate fitness (he has attractive characteristics that will be passed on to progeny).

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“…During postnatal developmental periods of zebra finch (Taeniopygia guttata), juvenile birds hear songs of their conspecifics and store this information inside their brain to acquire the knowledge to utter and to perceive vocal signals (3)(4)(5). Inadequate auditory experience during the postnatal development results in abnormalities of their songs (3,(6)(7)(8), which often results in a reduced communication or mating performance (9)(10)(11). On the other hand, even the songs of birds reared in acoustic isolation contain species-specific syllable elements (7,12), and such birds prefer the songs of conspecifics over those of different songbird species (13,14).…”

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confidence: 99%

Transgenic songbirds with suppressed or enhanced activity of CREB transcription factor

Abe

Matsui

Watanabe

2015

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

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Songbirds postnatally develop their skill to utter and to perceive a vocal signal for communication. How genetic and environmental influences act in concert to regulate the development of such skill is not fully understood. Here, we report the phenotype of transgenic songbirds with altered intrinsic activity of cAMP response element-binding protein (CREB) transcription factor. By viral vectormediated modification of genomic DNA, we established germ linetransmitted lines of zebra finches, which exhibited enhanced or suppressed activity of CREB. Although intrinsically acquired vocalizations or their hearing ability were not affected, the transgenic birds showed reduced vocal learning quality of their own songs and impaired audio-memory formation against conspecific songs. These results thus demonstrate that appropriate activity of CREB is necessary for the postnatal acquisition of learned behavior in songbirds, and the CREB transgenic birds offer a unique opportunity to separately manipulate both genetic and environmental factors that impinge on the postnatal song learning.songbird | CREB | transgenic animal | vocal learning | postnatal development

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Female zebra finches require early song exposure to prefer high-quality song as adults

Cited by 92 publications

References 28 publications

The interplay of within-species perceptual predispositions and experience during song ontogeny in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

The interplay of within-species perceptual predispositions and experience during song ontogeny in zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

Neural Constraints on the Complexity of Avian Song

Transgenic songbirds with suppressed or enhanced activity of CREB transcription factor

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