Influence of early-life nutritional stress on songbird memory formation.

ABSTRACT: In birds, vocal learning enables the production of sexually selected complex songs, dialects and song copy matching. But stressful conditions during development have been shown to affect song production and complexity, mediated by changes in neural development. However, to date, no studies have tested whether early-life stress affects the neural processes underlying vocal learning, in contrast to song production. Here, we hypothesized that developmental stress alters auditory memory formation and neural processing of song stimuli. We experimentally stressed male nestling zebra finches and, in two separate experiments, tested their neural responses to song playbacks as adults, using either immediate early gene (IEG) expression or electrophysiological response. Once adult, nutritionally stre

SUBMITTER: Bell BA 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6170808 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature