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Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata)

Recently, numerous studies have observed changes in bird vocalizations—especially song—in urban habitats. These changes are often interpreted as adaptive, since they increase the active space of the signal in its environment. However, the proximate mechanisms driving cross-generational changes in so...

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Autores principales: Potvin, Dominique A., Curcio, Michael T., Swaddle, John P., MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: PeerJ Inc. 2016
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991897/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27602270
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2287
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author Potvin, Dominique A.
Curcio, Michael T.
Swaddle, John P.
MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A.
author_facet Potvin, Dominique A.
Curcio, Michael T.
Swaddle, John P.
MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A.
author_sort Potvin, Dominique A.
collection PubMed
description Recently, numerous studies have observed changes in bird vocalizations—especially song—in urban habitats. These changes are often interpreted as adaptive, since they increase the active space of the signal in its environment. However, the proximate mechanisms driving cross-generational changes in song are still unknown. We performed a captive experiment to identify whether noise experienced during development affects song learning and the development of song-control brain regions. Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) were bred while exposed, or not exposed, to recorded traffic urban noise (Study 1) or pink noise (Study 2). We recorded the songs of male offspring and compared these to fathers’ songs. We also measured baseline corticosterone and measured the size of song-control brain regions when the males reached adulthood (Study 1 only). While male zebra finches tended to copy syllables accurately from tutors regardless of noise environment, syntax (the ordering of syllables within songs) was incorrectly copied affected by juveniles exposed to noise. Noise did not affect baseline corticosterone, but did affect the size of brain regions associated with song learning: these regions were smaller in males that had been had been exposed to recorded traffic urban noise in early development. These findings provide a possible mechanism by which noise affects behaviour, leading to potential population differences between wild animals occupying noisier urban environments compared with those in quieter habitats.
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spelling pubmed-49918972016-09-06 Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata) Potvin, Dominique A. Curcio, Michael T. Swaddle, John P. MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A. PeerJ Animal Behavior Recently, numerous studies have observed changes in bird vocalizations—especially song—in urban habitats. These changes are often interpreted as adaptive, since they increase the active space of the signal in its environment. However, the proximate mechanisms driving cross-generational changes in song are still unknown. We performed a captive experiment to identify whether noise experienced during development affects song learning and the development of song-control brain regions. Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) were bred while exposed, or not exposed, to recorded traffic urban noise (Study 1) or pink noise (Study 2). We recorded the songs of male offspring and compared these to fathers’ songs. We also measured baseline corticosterone and measured the size of song-control brain regions when the males reached adulthood (Study 1 only). While male zebra finches tended to copy syllables accurately from tutors regardless of noise environment, syntax (the ordering of syllables within songs) was incorrectly copied affected by juveniles exposed to noise. Noise did not affect baseline corticosterone, but did affect the size of brain regions associated with song learning: these regions were smaller in males that had been had been exposed to recorded traffic urban noise in early development. These findings provide a possible mechanism by which noise affects behaviour, leading to potential population differences between wild animals occupying noisier urban environments compared with those in quieter habitats. PeerJ Inc. 2016-08-16 /pmc/articles/PMC4991897/ /pubmed/27602270 http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2287 Text en ©2016 Potvin et al. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, reproduction and adaptation in any medium and for any purpose provided that it is properly attributed. For attribution, the original author(s), title, publication source (PeerJ) and either DOI or URL of the article must be cited.
spellingShingle Animal Behavior
Potvin, Dominique A.
Curcio, Michael T.
Swaddle, John P.
MacDougall-Shackleton, Scott A.
Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata)
title Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata)
title_full Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata)
title_fullStr Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata)
title_full_unstemmed Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata)
title_short Experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (Taenopygia guttata)
title_sort experimental exposure to urban and pink noise affects brain development and song learning in zebra finches (taenopygia guttata)
topic Animal Behavior
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4991897/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27602270
http://dx.doi.org/10.7717/peerj.2287
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