Elucidation of the neuronal mechanism of experience-dependent plasticity in the acoustic behavior

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Sound preference is the foundation of auditory learning, as when songbirds acquire song and humans acquire language. However, the mechanisms by which animals that rely on auditory learning for acoustic communication form sound preference remain elusive. Here we propose the use of Drosophila as a simple model to study these underlying neural mechanisms by addressing three major aspects in forming auditory preference. Firstly, flies exhibit innately higher auditory responses to conspecific songs than to heterospecific songs. Secondly, flies cannot sustain song preference during song deprivation or social isolation. Thirdly, flies selectively learn from song experience to prevent the loss of innate preference.