Effects of early auditory experiences on song discrimination in female zebra finches, Taeniopygia guttata

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Zebra finch males learn to sing by memorizing and mimicking their father’s songs during development for attracting females. On the other hand, females show spatial approaches or reinforced behaviors to familiar (normally their father’s) songs, suggesting they also form song memories in their brain by hearing adult male songs during development. Neurons in the secondary auditory cortex, caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) and caudomedial mesopallium (CMM) show auditory responsiveness to familiar songs, however, the neural bases for song memory formation and/or song recognition in females has remained unclear. Here we explored if the NCM and/or CMM in female zebra finches involves the neuronal substrates for father song memory as a basis for song preference behavior. We employed a two-operant choices preference test, perch-hop assay, and found that females showed a significantly weaker preference to their fathers’ songs after bilateral chemical lesions of the CMM. Females with bilateral sham lesions (PBS injection) did not change their preference. Furthermore, we induced apoptosis in the NCM or CMM neurons which responded to the playback of their father’s songs by using adeno-associated viral vectors (AAV-cFOS-Tet-ON-Caspase3 and AAV-cFOS-Tet-ON-DTA). These females also showed a decreased preference to their fathers’ songs after the inductions of neuronal cell death. Taken together, father song responsive neurons both in the NCM and CMM are necessary for father song preference behavior.