Limits on Reacquisition of Song in Adult Zebra Finches Exposed to White Noise

Abstract

Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) learn a specific song pattern during a sensitive period of development, after which song changes little or not at all. However, recent studies have demonstrated substantial behavioral plasticity in song behavior during adulthood under a range of conditions. The current experiment examined song behavior of adult zebra finches temporarily deprived of auditory feedback by chronic exposure to loud white noise (WN). Long-term exposure to continuous WN resulted in disruption of song similar to that observed after deafening. When auditory feedback was restored by discontinuing WN, birds were either tutored using tape-recorded playback or housed with adult conspecific tutors. No evidence of learning new tutor syllables was observed, and recovery of pre-WN song patterns was very limited after restoration of hearing. However, many birds did reacquire some aspects of their pretreatment song, suggesting an adult form of learning that may retain some of the initial aspects of sensorimotor acquisition of song in which vocalizations are shaped to match a stored template representation. The failure to learn novel song elements and the modest degree of recovery observed overall suggest a limit on plasticity in adult birds that have acquired species-typical song patterns and may reflect an important species difference between zebra finches and Bengalese finches.

Social Modulation of Sequence and Syllable Variability in Adult Birdsong

“…For example, in the zebra finch, the acoustic structure of vocal motor elements (i.e., syllables) is less variable when males sing to females (FD song) than when males sing in isolation (UD song) (Kao and Brainard 2006;Kao et al 2005). For adult zebra finches, syllable sequencing is usually stereotyped, and there is limited evidence for social modulation of sequence (Kao and Brainard 2006;Zevin et al 2004; but see 2 birds in Sossinka and Böhner 1980). Here we studied the social modulation of sequencing in the Bengalese finch, a species with a high degree of variability in syllable sequencing in adult crystallized song.…”

“…This practice versus performance hypothesis has been systematically investigated only in the zebra finch and derives almost exclusively from measurements of the modulation of the acoustic structure of individual song syllables. The active regulation of syllable sequencing, a hierarchically distinct aspect of song organization from syllable structure, has not been systematically investigated in part because the sequencing of syllables in adult zebra finch song is often invariant (Kao and Brainard 2006;Zevin et al 2004; but see also 2 birds in Sossinka and Böhner 1980). Current models of song production suggest that separate components of song premotor circuitry contribute differentially to the sequencing versus structure of syllables (reviewed in Fee et al 2004;Hahnloser et al 2002;Margoliash 1997;Vu et al 1994;Yu and Margoliash 1996), and, consequently, syllable sequencing may be subject to different forms of regulation from syllable structure.…”

Auditory-Dependent Vocal Recovery in Adult Male Zebra Finches Is Facilitated by Lesion of a Forebrain Pathway That Includes the Basal Ganglia

“…However, restoration of auditory function enables learning (juveniles) or recovery (adults) of song (Leonardo and Konishi, 1999;Funabiki and Konishi, 2003) (but cf. Zevin et al, 2004). Therefore, once juvenile birds establish a song template it appears that perturbed auditory feedback does not necessarily change or eliminate stored memories of song (which may exist at multiple locations), or prevent access to the song template in adulthood.…”

HVC Neural Sleep Activity Increases With Development and Parallels Nightly Changes in Song Behavior

“…Songbirds, as with humans, learn their species-typical vocalizations in two phases: a sensory phase of explicit memorization during which the memory of a tutor's song is formed and a sensorimotor phase of implicit skill learning during which the comparison of the tutor song memory to auditory feedback shapes the bird's own song (Bolhuis & Gahr 2006;Konishi 1965). The zebra finch songbird has been particularly valuable for developmental studies because it has a defined period of vocal plasticity after which song behavior is relatively "crystallized" or insensitive to all but the most extreme environmental perturbations (Leonardo and Konishi 1998;Nordeen and Nordeen 1992;Zevin et al 2004). The relative lack of seasonal variability in this species simplifies adult-juvenile comparisons.…”