The selectivity of sexual responses to song displays: effects of partial chemical lesion of the HVC in female canaries

Negro, Catherine Del; Gahr, Manfred; Leboucher, Gérard; Kreutzer, Michel

doi:10.1016/s0166-4328(98)00009-6

Cited by 89 publications

(55 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…Prior to lesions of HVc, female canaries give a significantly greater number of copulation solicitation displays to the playback of conspecific song than to heterospecific song. After lesions to HVc, however, similar numbers of copulation solicitation displays are elicited by both heterospecific and conspecific songs (Brenowitz, 1991;Del Negro et al, 1998). Based upon these results, some researchers have suggested that HVc plays an important role in the discrimination of behaviorally relevant conspecific and heterospecific song.…”

Section: Role Of Hvc In Song Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Individual vocal recognition and the effect of partial lesions to HVc on discrimination, learning, and categorization of conspecific song in adult songbirds

et al. 2000

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Among songbirds, the capacity to associate particular songs with particular singers (i.e., vocal recognition) forms the cognitive basis for more complex communication behaviors such as female choice and territoriality. In the present study, we combine operant conditioning techniques and excitotoxic lesions to the forebrain nucleus HVc to examine the role of this region in the discrimination, associative learning, and categorization of conspecific song. We trained adult male and female European starlings, Sturnus vulgaris, to recognize simultaneously the songs of several conspecific males. Then, using a series of transfer procedures, we demonstrate that correct recognition does not generalize to song bouts containing novel motifs from familiar singers. This suggests that starlings do not make use of individually invariant source or filter characteristics for vocal recognition. We then lesioned a portion of HVc bilaterally with ibotenic acid, and exposed the birds to a series of manipulations testing the discrimination, associative learning, and categorization of conspecific song. The lesions attenuated song production among males, but retention of the basic recognition task (i.e., maintenance of the discrimination) was unaffected. However, when the response contingencies were reversed-as a test of associative learning independent of discrimination-the initial performance and subsequent learning rate were negatively correlated with the size of the HVc lesions. This suggests that HVc plays a role in the formation of associations between a song and some referent. The results of this study are discussed in light of earlier claims regarding the role of HVc in the perceptual processing of conspecific song.

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Section: Role Of Hvc In Song Perceptionmentioning

confidence: 81%

Individual vocal recognition and the effect of partial lesions to HVc on discrimination, learning, and categorization of conspecific song in adult songbirds

et al. 2000

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“…Before considering how HVC auditory -vocal mirror neurons might function to facilitate song learning and communication, it is notable that auditory responses can be detected in the HVC of female songbirds that typically do not sing [58,59], and HVC lesions in female songbirds impair their ability to discriminate appropriately between conspecific and heterospecific songs [40,60] rstb.royalsocietypublishing.org Phil. Trans.…”

Section: Sensorimotor Roles For Hvc and The Phenomenon Of Auditory -Vmentioning

confidence: 99%

Auditory–vocal mirroring in songbirds

Mooney

2014

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. B

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Mirror neurons are theorized to serve as a neural substrate for spoken language in humans, but the existence and functions of auditory-vocal mirror neurons in the human brain remain largely matters of speculation. Songbirds resemble humans in their capacity for vocal learning and depend on their learned songs to facilitate courtship and individual recognition. Recent neurophysiological studies have detected putative auditory-vocal mirror neurons in a sensorimotor region of the songbird's brain that plays an important role in expressive and receptive aspects of vocal communication. This review discusses the auditory and motor-related properties of these cells, considers their potential role on song learning and communication in relation to classical studies of birdsong, and points to the circuit and developmental mechanisms that may give rise to auditory-vocal mirroring in the songbird's brain.

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“…The neural mechanisms by which the CSD is evoked and manifest-and it can be evoked by the male's song even in his physical absence [6]-are unclear, but in female canaries the elicitation and intensity of the CSD is under the control of highly specific, possibly innate, acoustic components of male song, called sexy syllables [7]. Moreover, although partial lesions of HVC cause female canaries to present the CSD indiscriminately, their CSDs remain most intensely evoked by canary sexy syllables [8]. This would seem to indicate that the pathway originating in HVC and descending via RA to RAm contributes in some way to the control of the CSD (figure 1).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Involvement of the avian song system in reproductive behaviour

Wild

Botelho

2015

Biol. Lett.

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The song system of songbirds consists of an interconnected set of forebrain nuclei that has traditionally been regarded as dedicated to the learning and production of song. Here, however, we suggest that the song system could also influence muscles used in reproductive behaviour, such as the cloacal sphincter muscle. We show that the same medullary nucleus, retroambigualis (RAm), that projects upon spinal motoneurons innervating expiratory muscles (which provide the pressure head for vocalization) and upon vocal motoneurons for respiratoryvocal coordination also projects upon cloacal motoneurons. Furthermore, RAm neurons projecting to sacral spinal levels were shown to receive direct projections from nucleus robustus arcopallialis (RA) of the forebrain song system. Thus, by indicating a possible disynaptic relationship between RA and motoneurons innervating the reproductive organ, in both males and females, these results potentially extend the role of the song system to include consummatory as well as appetitive aspects of reproductive behaviour.

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The selectivity of sexual responses to song displays: effects of partial chemical lesion of the HVC in female canaries

Cited by 89 publications

References 37 publications

Individual vocal recognition and the effect of partial lesions to HVc on discrimination, learning, and categorization of conspecific song in adult songbirds

Individual vocal recognition and the effect of partial lesions to HVc on discrimination, learning, and categorization of conspecific song in adult songbirds

Auditory–vocal mirroring in songbirds

Involvement of the avian song system in reproductive behaviour

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