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The Journal of Neuroscience, June 30, 2004, 24(26):5849-5862; doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.1891-04.2004

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Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive
Limits on Reacquisition of Song in Adult Zebra Finches Exposed to White Noise

Jason D. Zevin,¹ Mark S. Seidenberg,² and Sarah W. Bottjer¹

¹Program in Neuroscience, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90031, and ²Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wisconsin 53706

Zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata) learn a specific song pattern during a sensitive period of development, after which song changes little or not at all. However, recent studies have demonstrated substantial behavioral plasticity in song behavior during adulthood under a range of conditions. The current experiment examined song behavior of adult zebra finches temporarily deprived of auditory feedback by chronic exposure to loud white noise (WN). Long-term exposure to continuous WN resulted in disruption of song similar to that observed after deafening. When auditory feedback was restored by discontinuing WN, birds were either tutored using tape-recorded playback or housed with adult conspecific tutors. No evidence of learning new tutor syllables was observed, and recovery of pre-WN song patterns was very limited after restoration of hearing. However, many birds did reacquire some aspects of their pretreatment song, suggesting an adult form of learning that may retain some of the initial aspects of sensorimotor acquisition of song in which vocalizations are shaped to match a stored template representation. The failure to learn novel song elements and the modest degree of recovery observed overall suggest a limit on plasticity in adult birds that have acquired species-typical song patterns and may reflect an important species difference between zebra finches and Bengalese finches.

Key words: sensitive period; behavioral plasticity; songbirds; vocalization; auditory learning; song learning

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Received May 14, 2004; accepted May 14, 2004.

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