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Canaries
The Experts below are selected from a list of 303 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Gregory F Ball – 1st expert on this subject based on the ideXlab platform
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seasonal changes of perineuronal nets and song learning in adult Canaries serinus canaria
Behavioural Brain Research, 2020Co-Authors: Gilles Cornez, Gregory F Ball, Clementine Collignon, Wendt Muller, Charlotte A Cornil, Jacques BalthazartAbstract:Abstract Songbirds learn their song during a sensitive period of development associated with enhanced neural plasticity. In addition, in open-ended learners such as Canaries, a sensitive period for sensorimotor vocal learning reopens each year in the fall and leads to song modifications between successive breeding seasons. The variability observed in song production across seasons in adult Canaries correlates with seasonal fluctuations of testosterone concentrations and with morphological changes in nuclei of the song control system (SCS). The sensitive periods for song learning during ontogeny and then again in adulthood could be controlled by the development of perineuronal nets (PNN) around parvalbumin-expressing interneurones (PV) which limits learning-induced neuroplasticity. However, this relationship has never been investigated in the context of adult vocal learning in adult songbirds. Here we explored PNN and PV expression in the SCS of adult male Fife Fancy Canaries in relation to the seasonal variations of their singing behaviour. We found a clear pattern of seasonal variation in testosterone concentrations and song production. Furthermore, PNN expression was significantly higher in two specific song control nuclei, the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA) and the Area X of the basal ganglia, during the breeding season and during the later stages of sensorimotor song development compared to birds in an earlier stage of sensorimotor development during the fall. These data provide the first evidence that changes in PNN expression could represent a mechanism regulating the closing-reopening of sensitive periods for vocal learning across seasons in adult songbirds.
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strain differences in song and hearing in Canaries sernius canarius
Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2019Co-Authors: Robert J Dooling, Jane Brown, Beth F Brittanpowell, Gregory F Ball, Matt Conte, Karen L Carleton, Farrah N MadisonAbstract:Breeders have bred Canaries either for specific song characteristics (song Canaries) or morphology/plumage (type Canaries) for centuries. Type Canaries (e.g., Border and Gloster strains) retain song characteristics that are typically quite similar to those of wild Canaries. By contrast, song Canaries (e.g., Belgian Waterslager and Roller strains) have been selected for song types pleasing to the human ear, resulting in songs that, in most cases, are less complex, lower pitched, and narrower in a frequency range than songs from wild Canaries. We now suspect that song selection in the Belgian Waterslager song canary has either directly or indirectly resulted in high-frequency hearing loss associated with hair cell abnormalities. Here, we compare hearing in the Belgian Waterslager and several other type and song Canaries including the American Singer Canary. Though bred only since the 1930s, American Singer Canaries also have a high-frequency hearing loss that looks very similar to that of the Belgian Waterslager and may have similar pathologies. Illumina whole genome sequencing has preliminarily identified a number of high-impact SnpEff variants in Belgian Waterslager and American Singer Canaries, some of which are related to deafness genes in mammals.
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Intraspecific variation in testosterone-induced neuroplasticity in two canary strains
Hormones and Behavior, 2019Co-Authors: Farrah N Madison, Nisha Shah, Gregory F BallAbstract:Abstract Temperate zone songbird species, such as the canary (Serinus canaria), can serve as model systems to investigate adult seasonal plasticity in brain and behavior. An increase in day length, experienced by Canaries in the early spring stimulates gonadal recrudescence and an associated increase in circulating testosterone concentrations. This increase in plasma testosterone results in marked morphological changes in well-defined neural circuitry regulating reproductive behaviors including birdsong as well as behavioral changes such as increases in song length and complexity. An obvious measure of plasticity in neural morphology can be assessed via changes in brain nuclei volume and testosterone actions on a number of cellular features including the integration and incorporation of new neurons in the adult canary brain. Previous work in our lab suggests that there may be systematic intraspecific variability within Canaries in testosterone-induced adult neuroplasticity. For example, the song nucleus HVC increases in size in response to testosterone in male Canaries but we found that males of the American Singer strain exhibited minimal and variable responses as compared to other canary strains such as the Border canary strain, which is thought to be closer to wild type Canaries. In this study, we systematically compared the effects of testosterone on the volume of song nuclei and the number of new neurons as assessed with the neurogenesis marker doublecortin in American Singer and Border Canaries. We found more pronounced testosterone-induced neuroplasticity in the Border strain than the American Singer. These data suggest that the process of selection for certain strain phenotypes is also associated with significant changes in hormone-regulated brain plasticity.
Jacques Balthazart – 2nd expert on this subject based on the ideXlab platform
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seasonal changes of perineuronal nets and song learning in adult Canaries serinus canaria
Behavioural Brain Research, 2020Co-Authors: Gilles Cornez, Gregory F Ball, Clementine Collignon, Wendt Muller, Charlotte A Cornil, Jacques BalthazartAbstract:Abstract Songbirds learn their song during a sensitive period of development associated with enhanced neural plasticity. In addition, in open-ended learners such as Canaries, a sensitive period for sensorimotor vocal learning reopens each year in the fall and leads to song modifications between successive breeding seasons. The variability observed in song production across seasons in adult Canaries correlates with seasonal fluctuations of testosterone concentrations and with morphological changes in nuclei of the song control system (SCS). The sensitive periods for song learning during ontogeny and then again in adulthood could be controlled by the development of perineuronal nets (PNN) around parvalbumin-expressing interneurones (PV) which limits learning-induced neuroplasticity. However, this relationship has never been investigated in the context of adult vocal learning in adult songbirds. Here we explored PNN and PV expression in the SCS of adult male Fife Fancy Canaries in relation to the seasonal variations of their singing behaviour. We found a clear pattern of seasonal variation in testosterone concentrations and song production. Furthermore, PNN expression was significantly higher in two specific song control nuclei, the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA) and the Area X of the basal ganglia, during the breeding season and during the later stages of sensorimotor song development compared to birds in an earlier stage of sensorimotor development during the fall. These data provide the first evidence that changes in PNN expression could represent a mechanism regulating the closing-reopening of sensitive periods for vocal learning across seasons in adult songbirds.
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testosterone or estradiol when implanted in the medial preoptic nucleus trigger short low amplitude songs in female Canaries
eNeuro, 2019Co-Authors: Laura M Vandries, Gregory F Ball, Gilles Cornez, Charlotte A Cornil, Olesya T Shevchouk, Samar Ghorbanpoor, Jacques BalthazartAbstract:In male songbirds, the motivation to sing is largely regulated by testosterone (T) action in the medial preoptic area, whereas T acts on song control nuclei to modulate aspects of song quality. Stereotaxic implantation of T in the medial preoptic nucleus (POM) of castrated male Canaries activates a high rate of singing activity, albeit with a longer latency than after systemic T treatment. Systemic T also increases the occurrence of male-like song in female Canaries. We hypothesized that this effect is also mediated by T action in the POM. Females were stereotaxically implanted with either T or with 17β-estradiol (E2) targeted at the POM and their singing activity was recorded daily during 2 h for 28 d until brains were collected for histological analyses. Following identification of implant localizations, three groups of subjects were constituted that had either T or E2 implanted in the POM or had an implant that had missed the POM (Out). T and E2 in POM significantly increased the number of songs produced and the percentage of time spent singing as compared with the Out group. The songs produced were in general of a short duration and of poor quality. This effect was not associated with an increase in HVC volume as observed in males, but T in POM enhanced neurogenesis in HVC, as reflected by an increased density of doublecortin-immunoreactive (DCX-ir) multipolar neurons. These data indicate that, in female Canaries, T acting in the POM plays a significant role in hormone-induced increases in the motivation to sing.
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behavioral evidence for sex steroids hypersensitivity in castrated male Canaries
Hormones and Behavior, 2018Co-Authors: Olesya T Shevchouk, Gregory F Ball, Samar Ghorbanpoor, Edward C Smith, Philippe Liere, Michael Schumacher, Charlotte Cornil, Jacques BalthazartAbstract:Abstract In seasonally breeding songbirds such as Canaries, singing behavior is predominantly under the control of testosterone and its metabolites. Short daylengths in the fall that break photorefractoriness are followed by increasing daylengths in spring that activate singing via both photoperiodic and hormonal mechanisms. However, we observed in a group of castrated male Fife fancy Canaries maintained for a long duration under a short day photoperiod a large proportion of subjects that sang at high rates. This singing rate was not correlated with variation in the low circulating concentrations of testosterone. Treatment of these actively singing castrated male Canaries with a combination of an aromatase inhibitor (ATD) and an androgen receptor blocker (flutamide) only marginally decreased this singing activity as compared to control untreated birds and did not affect various measures of song quality. The volumes of HVC and of the medial preoptic nucleus (POM) were also unaffected by these treatments but were relatively large and similar to volumes in testosterone-treated males. In contrast, peripheral androgen-sensitive structures such as the cloacal protuberance and syrinx mass were small, similar to what is observed in castrates. Together these data suggest that after a long-term steroid deprivation singing behavior can be activated by very low concentrations of testosterone. Singing normally depends on the activation by testosterone and its metabolites of multiple downstream neurochemical systems such as catecholamines, nonapeptides or opioids. These transmitter systems might become hypersensitive to steroid action after long term castration as they probably are at the end of winter during the annual cycle in seasonally breeding temperate zone species.
Stefan Leitner – 3rd expert on this subject based on the ideXlab platform
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song learning in domesticated Canaries in a restricted acoustic environment
Proceedings of The Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 2009Co-Authors: Sandra Belzner, Cornelia Voigt, Clive K Catchpole, Stefan LeitnerAbstract:Many songbirds learn their songs early in life from a song model. In the absence of such a model, they develop an improvised song that often lacks the species-typical song structure. Open-ended learners, such as the domesticated canary, are able to modify their songs in adulthood, although the mechanisms that guide and time the song-learning process are still not fully understood. In a previous study, we showed that male domesticated Canaries lacking an adult song model in their first year substantially change their song repertoire and composition when exposed to normally reared conspecifics in their second year. Here, we investigate song development in descendants of Canaries that were raised and kept as a peer group without a song model. Such males represent tutors with abnormal song characteristics. Interestingly, the F1 generation developed quite normal song structure, and when brought into an environment with normally raised Canaries in their second year, they did not modify their songs substantially. These results suggest that contact with an adult song model early in life is crucial for song crystallization, but also that song development is at least partly guided by innate rules. They also question the existing classification of Canaries as open-ended learners.
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immediate early gene zenk arc expression in the auditory forebrain of female Canaries varies in response to male song quality
Journal of Neurobiology, 2005Co-Authors: Stefan Leitner, Cornelia Voigt, Reinhold Metzdorf, Clive K CatchpoleAbstract:In male songbirds, the song control pathway in the forebrain is responsible for song production and learning, and in females it is associated with the perception and discrimination of male song. However, experiments using the expression of immediate early genes (IEGs) reveal the activation of brain regions outside the song control system, in particular the caudomedial nidopallium (NCM) and the caudomedial mesopallium (CMM). In this study on female Canaries, we investigate the role of these two regions in relation to playback of male songs of different quality. Male Canaries produce elaborate songs and some contain syllables with a more complex structure (sexy syllables) that induce females to perform copulation solicitation displays (CSD) as an invitation to mate. Females were first exposed to playback of a range of songs of different quality, before they were finally tested with playback of songs containing either sexy or nonsexy syllables. We then sectioned the brains and used in situ hybridization to reveal brain regions that express the IEGs ZENK or Arc. In CMM, expression of ZENK mRNA was significantly higher in females that last heard sexy syllables compared to those that last heard nonsexy syllables, but this was not the case for NCM. Expression of Arc mRNA revealed no differences in either CMM or NCM in both experimental groups. These results provide evidence that in female Canaries CMM is involved in female perception and discrimination of male song quality through a mechanism of memory reconsolidation. The results also have further implications for the evolution of complex songs by sexual selection and female choice. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Neurobiol, 2005
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mate fidelity in a population of island Canaries serinus canaria in the madeiran archipelago
Journal of Ornithology, 2003Co-Authors: Cornelia Voigt, Stefan Leitner, Manfred GahrAbstract:Previous studies have shown that extra-pair paternity occurs less frequently in island populations than in mainland populations. This is thought to be due mainly to the low genetic variability in island populations but non-genetic factors have also been discussed. Here we report the results of a parentage analysis in a population of island Canaries (Serinus canaria) on a small uninhabited island in the Madeiran archipelago. Island Canaries are socially monogamous, non-migratory seasonal breeders where biparental care is essential for offspring survival. Multilocus DNA-fingerprinting provided no evidence of extra-pair-paternity in 15 families comprising 45 juveniles. The band sharing coefficient for presumably unrelated breeding pairs was low (0.17 ± 0.03), an indication that genetic variability within the population is similar to most non-island populations of other species. Females did not seek extra-pair copulations and actively rejected sexual approaches from males other than their mate. We propose that female island Canaries assess the quality of males during a perid outside the breeding season and optimise their mate choice according to learned preferences.