Meeting Abstract

45.10  Tuesday, Jan. 5  Behavioral and brain responses of female Lincoln’s sparrows to variation in male song quality CARO, S.P.*; SEWALL, K.B.; SALVANTE, K.G.; ALDREDGE, R.A.; SOCKMAN, K.W.; Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada; Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Univ. of North Carolina, Chapel Hill scaro@email.unc.edu

In many songbird species, females assess the quality of males and choose mates based, in part, on the quality of their song. In Lincoln’s sparrows (Melospiza lincolnii), annual changes in the ecological environment are associated with variations in several components of the population’s mean song quality, including song length, song complexity, and trill performance. This suggests that the average attractiveness of males and therefore choosiness of females can vary. Using female Lincoln’s sparrows, we are currently examining how variation in male song quality and females’ recent song experience, simultaneously affect their behavior, auditory forebrain sensitivity to variation in song quality (measured as expression of immediate early genes), and forebrain secretion of monoamines, which in some species modulate behavior based on experience. We found a higher level of behavioral activity in females exposed to high quality songs than in those exposed to low quality songs. This was especially true for females that had first been exposed to low quality songs, suggesting a role for recent song experience in the modulation of behavioral responses to song. We also found that females moved more toward songs with experimentally elevated trill performance than toward songs with experimentally reduced trill performance, suggesting that trill performance per se is a major component of male song quality. We propose that complex behaviors such as mate-choice are plastic and can be influenced by recent experience with ecologically dependent social cues. Understanding how the brain integrates such cues and then guides adaptive behavior is an important challenge for understanding the evolution of mate choice.