Physiological and behavioural responses of female mountain white-crowned sparrows to natal- and foreign-dialect songs

MacDougall‐Shackleton, Scott A.; MacDougall‐Shackleton, Elizabeth A.; Hahn, Thomas P.

doi:10.1139/cjz-79-2-325

Cited by 17 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 25 publications

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“…Our results are also consistent with data recently obtained by MacDougall-Shackleton et al (2001). They studied the effect of early song learning on behavioural responses to song in adulthood in female mountain white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys oriantha).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 95%

“…The birds showed a clear preference for nataldialect song, exhibiting more displays to natal-dialect song than to foreign-dialect or heterospecific song. However, the authors found that this effect was attenuated in birds that had heard heterospecific or foreign-dialect song when they were 1 year old (MacDougall-Shackleton et al 2001). The authors suggested that the song playback during the late exposure would correspond to a female sparrow's first breeding season.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

“…The authors suggested that the song playback during the late exposure would correspond to a female sparrow's first breeding season. They added that female white-crowned sparrows disperse farther than males do (Morton et al 1972;Morton 1992) and that it is likely that an adaptive mechanism allows females who settle in non-natal dialect song areas to learn during their first breeding season and modify their song preferences (MacDougall-Shackleton et al 2001). Canaries could follow the same pattern of dispersal, since females of the closest species in the genus Serinus (Arnaiz-Villena et al 1999), the common serin (S. serinus), seem also to disperse more than males (Mota 1995).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

“…In addition, it has been found that, in some species, females disperse more than males (Morton et al 1972;Morton 1992) and it has been hypothesised that they could have to adjust their previous pattern of preference to the small variations encountered in the songs of the males living where they settle (MacDougall-Shackleton et al 2001).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexual preferences for songs in female domestic canaries ( Serinus canaria ): can late song exposure, without social reinforcement, influence the effects of early tutoring?

2004

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We studied the relative effects of early and late song exposure without social reinforcement on female sexual preferences in the domestic canary (Serinus canaria). Young female canaries were tape-tutored during their first 4 months of life with songs of either domestic or wild male canaries (DT and WT conditions). When they reached sexual maturity, these females were placed in breeding conditions and some of them were re-exposed to songs. During this "late exposure" the females, according to their experimental group, were either presented with new domestic or wild songs (DL and WL conditions) over 40 days, or were kept without song stimulation (− condition). Afterwards, we assessed the sexual preferences of all the females for domestic or wild songs using the copulation solicitation display assay. The results showed that both DT/-and DT/DL females showed a clear preference for domestic songs. However, whereas WT/WL females preferred wild songs; WT/-females did not show any preference. Finally, DT/WL and WT/DL females failed to show any preference. It appeared that a second song experience at the beginning of their first breeding season, without any social reinforcement, allowed the emergence or stabilisation of early preferences, or interfered with these early preferences depending on whether the song category used during the late exposure phase matched or not the song category used during the early tutoring phase, and also depending on which category was used during the first tutoring phase. This behavioural plasticity could help young adult females to adjust the 'standard' they built during infancy to new environmental conditions.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 95%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 87%

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Sexual preferences for songs in female domestic canaries ( Serinus canaria ): can late song exposure, without social reinforcement, influence the effects of early tutoring?

2004

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“…For instance, female white-crowned sparrows (Zonotrichia leucophrys) normally prefer their natal song dialect. However, if they experience a more prevalent foreign dialect during preceding months, females exhibit no choice-bias toward either song type (MacDougall-Shackleton et al 2001). This suggests that when the prevailing song environment is lacking in the preferred song type, females adjust the threshold for choosing a male as a mate.…”

Section: Modulation Of Mate-choice Decisions By the Song Environmentmentioning

confidence: 95%

Neural orchestration of mate-choice plasticity in songbirds

Sockman

2007

J Ornithol

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Females may choose between prospective mates based on signals that reflect male quality. In songbirds, variation in male song can be such a signal. Females can adjust their choosiness according to the prevalence of preferred song, presumably because environmental variation can influence the availability of preferred phenotypes. Studies using induction of the immediate early gene ZENK (also called zif-268, egr-1, NGFI-A, and Krox-24) as an indicator of neuronal activity have revealed that the caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) and caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) of the female auditory forebrain are sensitive to song quality and respond proportionally to the strength of the female's choosiness. In European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), long songs are preferred by females and induce higher ZENK expression in the CMM and NCM compared to short songs. Experimentally reducing the perceived prevalence of long songs in the environment reduces this forebrain sensitivity to song length, raising the possibility that the songbird auditory forebrain integrates information about the social environment that enables the female to adjust her choosiness according to the availability of preferred phenotypes. In some songbird species, the noradrenergic system modulates mate-choice behavior, modulates song-induced auditory forebrain activity, and itself is modulated by the prevailing song environment, suggesting a possible role for this system in mediating the effects of social environment on forebrain and behavioral sensitivity to mate-choice cues. The presence of such a system would seem beneficial when the availability of preferred mates varies.

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Sex and seasonal differences in hippocampal volume and neurogenesis in brood‐parasitic brown‐headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater)

Guigueno

MacDougall‐Shackleton

Sherry

2016

Developmental Neurobiology

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Brown-headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater) are one of few species in which females show more complex space use than males. Female cowbirds search for, revisit, and parasitize host nests and, in a previous study, outperformed males on an open field spatial search task. Previous research reported a female-biased sex difference in the volume of the hippocampus, a region of the brain involved in spatial memory. Neurons produced by adult neurogenesis may be involved in the formation of new memories and replace older neurons that could cause interference in memory. We tested for sex and seasonal differences in hippocampal volume and neurogenesis of brood-parasitic brown-headed cowbirds and the closely related non-brood-parasitic red-winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) to determine whether there were differences in the hippocampus that reflected space use in the wild. Females had a larger hippocampus than males in both species, but hippocampal neurogenesis, measured by doublecortin immunoreactivity (DCX+), was greater in female than in male cowbirds in the absence of any sex difference in blackbirds, supporting the hypothesis of hippocampal specialization in female cowbirds. Cowbirds of both sexes had a larger hippocampus with greater hippocampal DCX+ than blackbirds. Hippocampus volume remained stable between breeding conditions, but DCX+ was greater post-breeding, indicating that old memories may be lost through hippocampal reorganization following breeding. Our results support, in part, the hypothesis that the hippocampus of cowbirds is specialized for brood parasitism. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Develop Neurobiol 76: 1275-1290, 2016.

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Physiological and behavioural responses of female mountain white-crowned sparrows to natal- and foreign-dialect songs

Cited by 17 publications

References 25 publications

Sexual preferences for songs in female domestic canaries ( Serinus canaria ): can late song exposure, without social reinforcement, influence the effects of early tutoring?

Sexual preferences for songs in female domestic canaries ( Serinus canaria ): can late song exposure, without social reinforcement, influence the effects of early tutoring?

Neural orchestration of mate-choice plasticity in songbirds

Sex and seasonal differences in hippocampal volume and neurogenesis in brood‐parasitic brown‐headed cowbirds (Molothrus ater)

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