Vyas Akshat, Harding Cheryl, Borg Lara, Bogdan Diane
Biopsychology and Behavioral Neuroscience Doctoral Program, Graduate Center, City University of New York, New York, NY 10016, USA.
Horm Behav. 2009 Jan;55(1):50-9. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2008.08.005. Epub 2008 Aug 16.
Female songbirds use male songs as an important criterion for mate selection. Properties of male songs are thought to indicate the male's quality as a potential mate. Song preferences in female zebra finches are known to be influenced by two factors--early auditory experience and the acoustic characteristics of males' songs. Studies often investigate song preferences by priming females with estrogen. However, estrogenic influences on song preferences have not been studied. We investigated the relative influence of early auditory experience, acoustic features of songs, and estrogen availability on song responsiveness in female zebra finches. Juvenile female zebra finches were tutored for 10 days with 40 songs per day with one of three acoustically different song types--simple songs, long-bout songs or complex songs. A fourth group of females was untutored. Aside from this brief song exposure, females were raised and maintained without exposure to male songs. During adulthood, females' behavioral responses to the three song types were tested under three hormone conditions--untreated, estradiol-treated and 1,4,6-androstatriene-3,17-dione (ATD)-treated (to lower endogenous estrogen). Based on the results of our study, four conclusions can be drawn. First, song responsiveness in female zebra finches is strongly affected by minimal early acoustic experience. Second, inexperienced female zebra finches are inherently biased to respond more to complex songs over other song types Third, although female zebra finches are inherently biased to respond more to complex songs, early acoustic experience may either reinforce or weaken this inherent responsiveness to complex songs. Fourth, estrogen selectively accentuates song responsiveness in acoustically-experienced female zebra finches.
雌性鸣禽将雄性歌声作为择偶的重要标准。雄性歌声的特性被认为能够表明其作为潜在配偶的质量。已知雌性斑胸草雀的歌声偏好受两个因素影响——早期听觉经验和雄性歌声的声学特征。研究通常通过用雌激素刺激雌性来调查歌声偏好。然而，雌激素对歌声偏好的影响尚未得到研究。我们调查了早期听觉经验、歌声的声学特征以及雌激素水平对雌性斑胸草雀歌声反应性的相对影响。幼年雌性斑胸草雀每天接受40首歌曲的训练，持续10天，训练歌曲为三种声学特征不同的歌曲类型之一——简单歌曲、长段歌曲或复杂歌曲。第四组雌性不接受训练。除了这种短暂的歌曲接触外，雌性在成长和饲养过程中未接触过雄性歌声。成年后，在三种激素条件下测试雌性对这三种歌曲类型的行为反应——未处理、雌二醇处理和1,4,6 - 雄甾三烯 - 3,17 - 二酮（ATD）处理（以降低内源性雌激素）。根据我们的研究结果，可以得出四个结论。第一，雌性斑胸草雀的歌声反应性受到最少早期声学经验的强烈影响。第二，没有经验的雌性斑胸草雀天生更倾向于对复杂歌曲而非其他歌曲类型做出更多反应。第三，尽管雌性斑胸草雀天生更倾向于对复杂歌曲做出更多反应，但早期声学经验可能会增强或削弱这种对复杂歌曲的固有反应性。第四，雌激素选择性地增强了有声学经验的雌性斑胸草雀的歌声反应性。
