Functional asymmetry of the songbird brain: effects of testosterone on song control in adult female canaries (Serinus canarius).
Previous research showed that chronic testosterone treatment of adult female canaries results in song development, demonstrating that vocal behavior is more dependent upon the presence of an appropriate hormonal stimulus than upon the genetic sex of the individual. We now report that in adult female canaries the importance of the left hemisphere for controlling testosterone induced song increases with singing experience. The occurrence of left-lateralized control of vocal behavior may prove to be a characteristic typical of animals capable of vocal learning.
D000818:Animals; D001921:Brain / Q000502:physiology; D002171:Canaries / Q000502:physiology*; D004292:Dominance, Cerebral / Q000502:physiology*; D005260:Female; D013739:Testosterone / Q000494:pharmacology*; D014828:Vocalization, Animal / Q000187:drug effects / Q000502:physiology*
D013739:Testosterone