Age effect of deafening on stereotyped song maintenance in adult male bengalese finches Lonchura striata domestica  

作　　者：Yingyu SUN Rui WANG Shuli SHAO Shaoju ZENG Mingxue ZUO 

机构地区：[1]College of Life Sciences, Beijing Normal University, Beijing 100875, China [2]Life Science and Engineering College, Qiqihar University, Qiqihar 161006, China

出　　处：《Current Zoology》2009年第3期212-218,共7页动物学报（英文版）

基　　金：supported by grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.30670685 and No.30870307 to Mingxue Zuo)

摘　　要：Birdsong is a complex learned vocal behavior that relies on auditory experience for development. However, it appears that among different species of close-ended songbirds, there are some variations in the necessity of auditory feedback for maintaining stereotyped adult song. In zebra finches, the deterioration of adult songs following deafness depends on the birds＇ age. It is unknown whether this age effect is a general rule in other avian species as well. Therefore, we chose Bengalese finches, whose songs show more complexity and have much heavier dependency on auditory feedback than that of zebra finches, to compare the degree of song degradation after hearing loss in old （over 18 months old） and young adult birds （5 - 6 months old）. We found that both syllable sequence and syllable phonology were much less severely affected by deafening in old adults than that in young ones. Moreover, young adults almost lost their capability to sing trills over 6 months following deafening, while old birds continued to sing plenty of trills and trilled syllables after the same period of deafening. Our results suggest that age plays an important role in affecting the dependency of adult song maintenance on auditory feedback in Bengalese finches. Furthermore, the age dependency may be a general phenomenon in different species of close-ended songbirds [ Current Zoology 55 （3）： 212 - 218, 2009].

关 键 词：Auditory feedback Bengalese finch Deafening Age SYLLABLE 

分 类 号：Q959.7[生物学—动物学]