SOCKMAN, K.W.*; GENTNER, T.Q.; BALL, G.F.; Johns Hopkins University; University of Chicago; Johns Hopkins University: Experience-Dependent Modulation of Song-Induced ZENK and FOS Reveals Functional Heterogeneity in the Songbird Auditory Telencephalon

Female songbirds making mate-choice decisions must identify, judge among, and respond to the varying courtship songs of males. Female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) show robust preferences in a mate-choice context for long-bout songs over short-bout songs, and these same long-bout songs elicit higher expression of the immediate early gene (IEG) ZENK in the caudo-medial hyperstriatum ventrale (cmHV) and caudo-medial neostriatum (NCM) than short-bout songs elicit. Because the prevailing song culture may influence mate-choice decisions in some species, neural responses to mate-choice stimuli should reflect recent song-culture experiences. We report that a female starling’s recent song experience differentially modulates the cmHV and NCM expression patterns of two immunocytochemically labeled IEG proteins, ZENK and FOS, in a way that complements natural variation in bout length. Following a 1-wk experience with long-bout songs, ZENK expression was greater in response to a novel long-bout than to a novel short-bout song-stimulus, but FOS expression was not. However, if the prior 1-wk experience was with short-bout songs, then FOS expression was greater in response to the novel long-bout than short-bout stimulus, but ZENK was not. Thus, each IEG response is tuned by the song experience predominantly toward one end of the natural distribution of song variation, revealing a processing system that complements variation along the behaviorally relevant dimension of the stimulus.