Neuroethology

Neural bases of song preferences in female zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata)

MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A.2,3; Hulse, Stewart H.1; Ball, Gregory F.1

Author Information

1Department of Psychology, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD 21218, USA

2Present address: Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Princeton University, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA

3Corresponding Author: Scott A. MacDougall-Shackleton

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: We thank Wendy Hill for supplying us with zebra finches and Henrike Hultsch, Chlis Sturdy and Ron Weisman for supplying recordings. Beth MacDougall-Shackleton and Tom Hahn provided helpful comments on the manuscript. This research was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (IBN-9317868, IBN-9514525) and NIH (NS 35467).

Website publication 22 September 1998

Received 10 June 1998; accepted 19 July 1998

NeuroReport 9(13):p 3047-3052, September 14, 1998.

Abstract

WE examined the neural bases of song preferences in female zebra finches Taeniopygia guttat a). Females performed more courtship displays in response to conspecific songs than to heterospecific songs. Following electrolytic lesion to the HVc (sometimes referred to as high vocal center), females maintained normal song preferences. However, following lesion to cHV (caudal hyperstriatum ventrale, an auditory area) females performed courtship displays at high rates in response to both conspecific and heterospecific song. Thus cHV, but not HVc, must be intact for female zebra finches to exhibit normal song preferences. Differences between this study and those showing HVc lesions disrupting song preferences in female canaries Serinus canari a indicate interspecific variation in the function of HVc in female songbirds.

© 1998 Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, Inc.

Full Text Access for Subscribers:

Not a Subscriber?

Buy
Request Permissions

You can read the full text of this article if you:

Access through Ovid