Department of Zoology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI, United States.
Neurosci Lett. 2011 May 27;496(1):20-4. doi: 10.1016/j.neulet.2011.03.078. Epub 2011 Apr 1.
Female songbirds respond behaviorally to differences in male song structure. Past data suggest a complex role for norepinephrine in female responses to song. Here, we examined the effects of central infusions of the α(1)-noradrenergic receptor antagonist prazosin on female European starling (Sturnus vulgaris) responses to nest boxes broadcasting male song. Prazosin disrupted female preferential responses to male starling song over the less biologically relevant purple martin (Progne subis) song. Prazosin decreased female responses to male starling song in a linear dose-response fashion; whereas, it affected responses to purple martin song in a U-shaped dose-response fashion. Results suggest that the role of norepinephrine in female responses to male song differs depending upon drug dose and the biological relevance of the song stimulus.
雌性鸣禽会对雄性鸣禽的鸣叫声结构差异做出行为反应。过去的数据表明，去甲肾上腺素在雌性对鸣叫声的反应中起着复杂的作用。在这里，我们研究了中枢注射α(1)-去甲肾上腺素能受体拮抗剂特拉唑嗪对雌性欧洲椋鸟（Sturnus vulgaris）对巢箱广播雄性椋鸟歌声反应的影响。特拉唑嗪破坏了雌性对雄性椋鸟歌声的偏好反应，而对生物学上不那么相关的紫马丁（Progne subis）歌声的反应则没有受到影响。特拉唑嗪以线性剂量反应的方式减少了雌性对雄性椋鸟歌声的反应；而对紫马丁歌声的反应则呈 U 形剂量反应方式。结果表明，去甲肾上腺素在雌性对雄性歌声反应中的作用取决于药物剂量和歌声刺激的生物学相关性。
