Department of Biology, The City College of New York, City University of New York, New York, USA.
Dev Neurobiol. 2010 Jan;70(1):28-40. doi: 10.1002/dneu.20751.
Juvenile male zebra finches develop their song by imitation. Females do not sing but are attracted to males' songs. With functional magnetic resonance imaging and event-related potentials we tested how early auditory experience shapes responses in the auditory forebrain of the adult bird. Adult male birds kept in isolation over the sensitive period for song learning showed no consistency in auditory responses to conspecific songs, calls, and syllables. Thirty seconds of song playback each day over development, which is sufficient to induce song imitation, was also sufficient to shape stimulus-specific responses. Strikingly, adult females kept in isolation over development showed responses similar to those of males that were exposed to songs. We suggest that early auditory experience with songs may be required to tune perception toward conspecific songs in males, whereas in females song selectivity develops even without prior exposure to song.
幼年雄性斑马雀通过模仿来发展它们的歌声。雌性不会唱歌，但会被雄性的歌声所吸引。我们使用功能磁共振成像和事件相关电位技术，测试了早期的听觉经验如何塑造成年鸟类听觉前脑的反应。在学习歌曲的敏感时期被隔离的成年雄性鸟类对同种歌曲、叫声和音节的听觉反应没有一致性。在发育过程中每天播放 30 秒的歌曲，足以诱导模仿歌曲，也足以形成刺激特异性反应。引人注目的是，在发育过程中被隔离的成年雌性表现出的反应与接触过歌曲的雄性相似。我们认为，早期的听觉经验可能需要与歌曲一起，来调整雄性对同种歌曲的感知，而在雌性中，即使没有预先接触歌曲，歌曲选择性也会发展。
