Melatonin Binding in the House Sparrow Song Control System: Sexual Dimorphism and the Effect of Photoperiod

Whitfield-Rucker, Melissa G.; Cassone, Vincent M.

doi:10.1006/hbeh.1996.0056

Cited by 60 publications

(56 citation statements)

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“…rhythm in song and call behaviors has only recently been shown (Wang et al, 2012), even though melatonin influence on song nuclei volume and the expression of melatonin receptors in song nuclei has been well documented (Bentley, 2003;Bentley and Ball, 2000;Bentley et al, 1999;Bentley et al, 2013;Cassone et al, 1995;Cassone et al, 2008;Gahr and Kosar, 1996;Jansen et al, 2005;Whitfield-Rucker and Cassone, 1996). Additionally, melatonin inhibited the spontaneous firing rate of a vocal premotor nucleus in the zebra finch, suggesting that it can act directly on vocal circuits to influence vocal patterning (Jansen et al, 2005).…”

Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Evidence for such plasticity is found in the varying distribution and abundance of melatonin receptors within neural pathways of songbirds across species, sexes, developmental stages and seasons (Bentley et al, 1999;Bentley et al, 2013;Cassone et al, 1995;Gahr and Kosar, 1996;Whitfield-Rucker and Cassone, 1996), the pro-or antigonadal effects of exogenous melatonin treatment in fishes (Maitra and Chattoraj, 2006), and the differential effects of melatonin on locomotor activity in nocturnal versus diurnal fishes (López-Olmeda et al, 2006). Results presented here suggest that differential melatonin sensitivity exists within subregions of a central vocal motor network to regulate the production of seasonal and nocturnaldependent advertisement calling.…”

Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

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Melatonin action in a midbrain vocal-acoustic network

Feng

Bass

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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Melatonin is a well-documented time-keeping hormone that can entrain an individual's physiology and behavior to the day-night cycle, though surprisingly little is known about its influence on the neural basis of social behavior, including vocalization. Male midshipman fish (Porichthys notatus) produce several call types distinguishable by duration and by daily and seasonal cycles in their production. We investigated melatonin's influence on the known nocturnal-and breeding season-dependent increase in excitability of the midshipman's vocal network (VN) that directly patterns natural calls. VN output is readily recorded from the vocal nerve as a 'fictive call'. Five days of constant light significantly increased stimulus threshold levels for calls electrically evoked from vocally active sites in the medial midbrain, supporting previous findings that light suppresses VN excitability, while 2-iodomelatonin (2-IMel; a melatonin analog) implantation decreased threshold. 2-IMel also increased fictive call duration evoked from medial sites as well as lateral midbrain sites that produced several-fold longer calls irrespective of photoregime or drug treatment. When stimulus intensity was incrementally increased, 2-IMel increased duration only at lateral sites, suggesting that melatonin action is stronger in the lateral midbrain. For animals receiving 5 days of constant darkness, known to increase VN excitability, systemic injections of either of two mammalian melatonin receptor antagonists increased threshold and decreased duration for calls evoked from medial sites. Our results demonstrate melatonin modulation of VN excitability and suggest that social contextdependent call types differing in duration may be determined by neuro-hormonal action within specific regions of a midbrain vocalacoustic network.

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Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Research Articlementioning

confidence: 99%

Melatonin action in a midbrain vocal-acoustic network

Feng

Bass

2013

Journal of Experimental Biology

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“…For example, the peak in the ratio of dying high vocal center (HVc) cells is preceded by a shortening day length (and hence is coincident with an increased duration of the melatonin signal) (22). In addition, melatonin binding sites have been described in the songcontrol system of three songbird species, including starlings (23)(24)(25). In starlings, the telencephalic nuclei HVc, the lateral magnocellular nucleus of the anterior neostriatum (lMAN), area X, and nucleus robustus archistriatalis (RA) all contain melatonin binding sites (24).…”

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confidence: 99%

Seasonal neuroplasticity in the songbird telencephalon: A role for melatonin

Bentley

Hof

Ball

1999

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

135

107

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Neuroplasticity in the vocal control system of songbirds is strongly inf luenced by seasonal f luctuations in circulating testosterone. These seasonally plastic telencephalic structures are implicated in the learning and production of song in songbirds. The role of the indoleamine melatonin in seasonal adaptations in birds has remained unclear. In this experiment, European starlings were castrated to remove the neuromodulating activity of gonadal steroids and were exposed to different photoperiods to induce reproductive states characteristic of different seasonal conditions. Long days increased the volume of the song-control nucleus high vocal center compared with its volume on short days. Exogenous melatonin attenuated the long-day-induced volumetric increase in high vocal center and also decreased the volume of another song-control nucleus, area X. This effect was observed regardless of reproductive state. To our knowledge, this is the first direct evidence of a role for melatonin in functional plasticity within the central nervous system of vertebrates.European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) are highly photoperiodic (1). Reproductive activity occurs in the spring as day length is increasing (i.e., photostimulation occurs), but is subsequently curtailed by the onset of photorefractoriness during exposure to long day lengths. During the onset of photorefractoriness, the hypothalamo-pituitary-gonadal (HPG) axis becomes inactive and the gonads regress (2). Starlings remain refractory to long day lengths until short days are experienced in the winter; the HPG axis slowly becomes responsive again in the absence of a long day photostimulus, in preparation for increasing day length and consequent full reproductive activity in the spring. It must be noted that these centrally mediated different reproductive states are not mediated by seasonal changes in gonadal steroids and still occur at the levels of the hypothalamus and the pituitary gland, even in the absence of gonads (2). Coincident with changes in reproductive activity, seasonal neuroplasticity now documented in several species of oscine songbirds occurs within discrete telencephalic nuclei that are involved in song learning and production (3-7). Increases in the volumes of these song-control nuclei largely depend on seasonal increases in circulating testosterone (T) and its metabolites (8-10) that are directly related to the annual reproductive cycles of these birds (11). These seasonal changes in volumes of the song-control nuclei are associated with changes in cell size and cell number in various song-control nuclei (12).Recent studies suggest that there are gonad-and Tindependent seasonal changes in the volumes of song nuclei (13-15). To date, it has been unclear what factors might be contributing to these T-independent neuronal changes. A complex suite of physiological events occurs during the onset of photorefractoriness (2). These include changes in circulating concentrations of photoperiodically controlled hormones other than T. There are also alt...

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“…Studies on avian melatonin receptors mainly focused on the retina (Rada and Wiechmann, 2006), gonads (Aste et al, 2001) and song-control nuclei in the brain (Cassone et al, 2008;Whitfield-Rucker and Cassone, 1996) photoreception takes place in the retina only and there has been an evolutionary loss of two retinal cone classes (Barrett et al, 2003) and of certain opsins which are found in nonmammalian vertebrates including birds and fishes (Bellingham et al, 2003). These differences in circadian organisation are believed to be the consequence of a "nocturnal bottleneck" during early evolution of mammals (Foster et al, 1993).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%