Monbureau Marie, Barker Jennifer M, Leboucher Gérard, Balthazart Jacques
University of Paris West Nanterre La Défense, Laboratory of Ethology, Cognition and Development (EA 3456), Nanterre, France.
University of Liège, GIGA Neurosciences, Research group in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology, Liège, Belgium.
Physiol Behav. 2015 Aug 1;147:7-15. doi: 10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.04.005. Epub 2015 Apr 3.
In canaries, specific phrases of male song (sexy songs, SS) that are difficult to produce are especially attractive for females. Females exposed to SS produce more copulation displays and deposit more testosterone into their eggs than females exposed to non-sexy songs (NS). Increased expression of the immediate early genes c-Fos or zenk (a.k.a. egr-1) has been observed in the auditory forebrain of female songbirds hearing attractive songs. C-Fos immunoreactive (Fos-ir) cell numbers were quantified here in the brain of female canaries that had been collected 30min after they had been exposed for 60min to the playback of SS or NS or control white noise. Fos-ir cell numbers increased in the caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) and caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) of SS birds as compared to controls. Song playback (pooled SS and NS) also tended to increase average Fos-ir cell numbers in the mediobasal hypothalamus (MBH) but this effect did not reach full statistical significance. At the individual level, Fos expression in CMM was correlated with its expression in NCM and in MBH but also with the frequency of calls that females produced in response to the playbacks. These data thus indicate that male songs of different qualities induce a differential metabolic activation of NCM and CMM. The correlation between activation of auditory regions and of the MBH might reflect the link between auditory stimulation and changes in behavior and reproductive physiology.
在金丝雀中，雄性鸣唱中那些难以发出的特定乐句（性感歌声，SS）对雌性特别有吸引力。与接触非性感歌声（NS）的雌性相比，接触SS的雌性会表现出更多的交配行为，并且向卵中分泌更多的睾酮。在听到有吸引力歌声的雌性鸣禽的听觉前脑中，已观察到即刻早期基因c-Fos或zenk（又名egr-1）的表达增加。在此对雌性金丝雀的大脑进行了c-Fos免疫反应性（Fos-ir）细胞数量的定量分析，这些雌性金丝雀在接触SS或NS的回放或对照白噪声60分钟后，于30分钟后被采集。与对照组相比，接触SS的鸟类的尾内侧中脑皮质（CMM）和尾内侧巢皮质（NCM）中的Fos-ir细胞数量增加。歌声回放（SS和NS合并）也倾向于增加中基底下丘脑（MBH）中的平均Fos-ir细胞数量，但这种效应未达到完全的统计学显著性。在个体水平上，CMM中的Fos表达与其在NCM和MBH中的表达相关，也与雌性对回放做出反应时发出的叫声频率相关。因此，这些数据表明不同质量的雄性歌声会诱导NCM和CMM产生不同的代谢激活。听觉区域和MBH激活之间的相关性可能反映了听觉刺激与行为和生殖生理变化之间的联系。
