Meeting Abstract

46.5  Jan. 6  Song culture affects noradrenergic activity in the auditory telencephalon of female starlings SALVANTE, K.G.*; SOCKMAN, K.W.; Univ. North Carolina, Chapel Hill; Univ. North Carolina, Chapel Hill ksalvante@unc.edu

In some songbird species, the spectro-temporal properties of a male’s song may reflect his quality and hence suitability as a prospective mate. Thus, females make mate-choice decisions based on variation among males in their song. Female European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris) prefer males that primarily sing long songs over those that primarily sing short songs, and regions of the auditory telencephalon are sensitive to this song-length variation. However, exposure to other social information, such as the prevalence of long- versus short-song males, can modulate the sensitivity of the auditory telencephalon to song length. Due to the presence of noradrenergic input to the auditory forebrain and, in some species, the loss of song-based preferences when this input is lesioned, we hypothesized that norepinephrine secretion mediates the effects of song culture on telencephalic song-length sensitivity. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that a 1-week exposure to short songs reduced forebrain immunoreactivity for the enzyme that converts dopamine to norepinephrine (dopamine beta hydroxylase, DBH-ir) compared to females exposed to long song or no song. Song-culture-dependent modulation of noradrenergic activity in the auditory telencephalon may form part of a mechanism for the integration of social information in the mate-choice process and social modulation of female choosiness.